Coalition of US Wind-Tower Players Looking for Antidumping Duties Against Chinese, Vietnamese Imports

The company's Shady Oaks project in North Dakota used towers made in Texas and Wisconsin, Mahoney said. "In one case, as a result of the Shady Oaks project, a U.S. manufacturer retained and rehired positions it had previously eliminated," he said.

Solar Imports

The U.S. trade commission took the first step toward adding tariffs on Chinese solar imports on Dec. 2, saying subsidies for the products harm equipment makers such as Bonn-based SolarWorld.

Chinese solar-equipment makers have said tariffs sought by U.S. competitors would make it harder to expand the use of renewable energy.

China and the U.S. are among nations encouraging the use of renewable-energy sources, driving costs down, so it would be unfair to penalize China, Richard Weiner, an attorney for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, told investigators with the U.S. trade commission in Washington on Nov. 8.

Solyndra LLC, a California maker of solar panels that received $535 million in U.S. loan guarantees, blamed cheap Chinese imports for its collapse in September.

Chinese Companies

Suntech Power Holdings Co. and Trina Solar Ltd., two of the biggest China-based makers of crystalline silicon panels, have argued against duties. China-based Yingli Green Energy Holding Co.'s U.S. unit, Canadian Solar Inc.'s U.S. unit and San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy also have argued against the tariffs.

"The United States will do everything we can to defend our core interest and make sure our manufacturers are not discriminated against or put in to a competitive disadvantage because of another country's industrial policy," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Nov. 7 in an interview. "All we ask, we want everybody to play by the rules."

The Obama administration filed a trade complaint against China at the World Trade Organization in December 2010 over its support for wind-energy manufacturers through aid tied to the use of locally produced content. China agreed to end hundreds of millions of dollars in such subsidies, the U.S. trade office said in June.