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U.S. Steel Industry Says Get Ready, Chinese Government Companies Are Coming To America - 0 views

  • "In essence, after creating, developing and nurturing massive 'national champions,' the Chinese government is now strategically deploying these entities overseas to execute the government's agenda: to acquire natural resources and raw materials, obtain technology and expertise, gain entry into new markets and increase China's economic and political influence on a global scale."
  • Such ownership is deemed illegal under the World Trade Organization rules. Yet China has defied them. The Chinese government owns most of the shares of the major steel producers. It is involved in making the business decisions within virtually all of China's major steel companies.
  • The Chinese government has directed its Anshan Iron and Steel Group to directly invest in the United States. On May 17, 2010, the company announced a joint venture with Steel Development Co. of Amory, Miss., to build up to five new steel plants in the United States. "Anshan's investment in SDC is the direct result of China's industrial policies," notes Wiley Rein. The 100-percent state-owned enterprise became China's fourth largest steel producer "through government mandated mergers and the receipt of massive government subsidies." China's 2009 "Revitalization Plan," "explicitly identifies Anshan as a recipient of extensive government support in order to strengthen its international competitiveness and to assist Anshan in acquiring strategic resources and establishing operations abroad. . . Anshan is now investing in the U.S. steel market, with the full force and encouragement of the Chinese government." China is stepping up its global strategy. China's government said it invested $43.3 billion overseas in 2009. Through June 2010, overseas investment had reached $55.2 billion. The OECD says these figures are "substantially" underestimated. Chinese foreign mergers and acquisitions have increased by more than 50 percent in the first half of 2010, according to report from China Daily Online. "Chinese investment into the United States jumped 360 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period last year," according to the Wiley Rein report. "In 2009, Chinese enterprises announced new direct investment in the United States of approximately $5 billion, up from $500 million in 2008, and despite a significant global downturn in such investments. Moreover, Chinese firms acquired or announced that they were starting more than 50 U.S. companies in 2009."
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China | ThinkProgress - 0 views

  • “In Durban, I expect governments to find a way forward for the Kyoto Protocol so we can make a broader comprehensive climate agreement possible,” said Mr. Ban in remarks prepared for delivery to an event on climate change organized by the mission of the United Kingdom to the UN.
  • Mr. Ban urged governments to launch the Green Climate Fund, which was established last year in Cancun, Mexico. “But it must not be an empty shell – a fund in name only. Governments must provide the $100 billion that was pledged. This would be a welcome concrete outcome at Durban.”
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Should the US Government Allow a Chinese Steel Mill to Invest in Steel Technology They ... - 1 views

  • [Ed. Note According to a May 24 AMM post, the investment will also go toward building four re-bar plants (not one) and one flat rolled product mini-mill, all based in the US)
  • Dive under the surface a bit, and the investment by Anshan raises serious concerns not only among steel producers but also for any US manufacturing organization in general.
  • American national security infrastructure projects’ through the investment.”
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  • Let’s examine rebar consumption. First, we’ll examine apparent consumption (apparent consumption is net domestic consumption plus imports) and then we’ll calculate capacity utilization: 2007 – 9.824m short tons 2008 – 8.374 m short tons 2009 – 5.359 m short tons 2010 – based on current 2010 run rates, the industry will ship 5.1m short tons If you compare the peak of the market (2007) with today, the US rebar industry operates at a 62% capacity utilization rate; the overall steel industry operates at a 72.9% capacity utilization rate as of June 26, 2010. Two rebar facilities are currently shut down, one in New Jersey and one in Oklahoma. Many of the other facilities that run both mixed merchant/rebar mills are also running at less than capacity If we were to develop a map of the United States and mark US rebar plant locations by geography (assuming each mill can ship up to a 300 mile
  • First, the last time the US steel market was at 120m tons of consumption was in 2006. The 2009 estimated steel consumption was 59m tons, data courtesy of the USGS. Prior to 2006, the only other year in which apparent steel consumption met or exceeded 120m tons was in 2005. The rest of this past decade, steel consumption hovered in the lower 100m ton range (e.g. less than 110m tons)
  • the question of technology transfer ought to be considered heavily
  • –Lisa Reisman
  • we’d see a glut of capacity in the US Southeast. The only argument one could make for building a rebar mill may be to move it somewhere out West, but even that may be a tenuous argument
  • And we all know that US construction markets (the biggest application for rebar products) remain in troubled waters. Take a look at annual expenditures for both commercial and residential construction here. Incidentally, 2010 data is tracking 8% below 2009 numbers. In other words, rebar capacity utilization rates are even less than overall steel industry capacity utilization rates
  • We can’t see the business case to add rebar capacity in the US. Clearly the PE firm involved in Steel Development Corp is banking on the management team.
  • If our politicians think this is about jobs, we can assure them that this may be a short term win (in terms of new jobs in Mississippi) – but they will result in a net loss for US manufacturing, as the current US domestic rebar industry has already laid off thousands of workers. And by giving this technology to the Chinese, well, we know what that will mean long term….
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» Blog Archive » Commissioners Comment on Status of Alcoa Negotiations - 1 views

  • Alcoa has stated they will provide financial assurances (up to $1.2 million) for the life of the license.  However, Alcoa has failed to inform the public these assurances are not worth the paper they are written on without sufficient enforcement measures included in the agreement.  Alcoa has refused to accept any language we have put forth that would provide sufficient remedies for the County to receive “financial assurances”, if Alcoa does not live up to its end of the bargain.
  • In fact, the proposal Alcoa presented includes an escape clause for any responsibilities due from the company, but it does not allow for review of the hydroelectric license once the license has been awarded.
  • As Alcoa’s latest offer stands, there is no efficient or cost effective way for the County to hold Alcoa accountable for its promises of jobs and investment
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  • This is not “compelling”… it is unreasonable.
  • It is not proper for parties to share incomplete information via the press in these types of proceedings until the discussions yield an agreement or officially cease.  Neither has occurred.
  • From the beginning, the County’s goals have been to ensure: (1) that the river is environmentally protected for generations to come, (2) that the use of water from the Yadkin River is best determined by citizens of North Carolina, and (3) that the flow of the river is used to maximize the impact of its resources for the benefit of its citizens.  
  • The goal of environmental protection is being addressed in the state 401 water quality permit process and includes the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Alcoa/APGI, Stanly County and the Yadkin Riverkeeper.
  • he County believes its intervention in this process will lead to numerous water quality improvements.
  • (1) The Board of Commissioners is legally responsible for the public health and well-being of its citizens.  These basic environmental protection measures will lead to cleaner surface and ground water for our citizens now and for generations to come.  It is impossible to put a price tag on the value of one citizen’s life or well-being.   (2) The value of water will only increase as growth demands in the Charlotte region, Piedmont Triad and along the I-85 corridor strain our available water resources.  Regional organizations to the east and west of the Yadkin River basin are planning for water use over the coming decades and our citizens need to be doing the same. (3) The water of the Yadkin belongs to the people and has tremendous value from an electrical generation perspective.  The benefits should not simply be given away to a global corporation to support its operations in other states and foreign countries. This simply transfers wealth out of our community and that is unacceptable. 
  • The County is seeking fair and reasonable compensation for the long-term use of the river.
  • We, as Commissioners, will continue to seek the best outcome for Stanly County.
  •   Should our citizens accept a static amount for a settlement when the value of the resource will increase exponentially over the term of the license?
  •   However, without long-term financial assurances these jobs and the associated taxable investment will remain over the course of a 30, 40 or 50 year license term, it would not be wise to simply drop our reasonable demands.
  • I’m so proud of (and awed by) the Commissioners for thinking of the bigger picture and the long term needs of the community. This is nothing short of blackmail — and failing that, bribery! –on Alcoa’s part. The only reason they’ve ever offered anything is because of the Commissioner’s strong stand against a massive corporate giveaway. Good for you Commissioners! I salute you.
  • Stanly County upheld its end of the bargain for 50 years. It’s time to reclaim use of the water for the betterment of all Yadkin Valley communities. Looks to me like Alcoa is the one stalling, not the commissioners.
  • We must put our fate in our own hands not with a corporation who has no responsibility to our region or our state.
  • I applaud the Commissioners’ continued resolve to do what is in the best interests of our citizens. Future prosperity in Stanly County depends on the Yadkin hydropower. Since the beginning of time, communities have only thrived because of their access to water …for drinking, recreation, trade and fuel. Had our water not been under the control of Alcoa for the last 50 years, we would be in much better shape economically. By leveraging the Yadkin hydropower, we could have already replaced our lost manufacturing jobs with higher paying jobs that reflect the needs of the 21st century. We would be absolute fools to once again relinquish control of our waters to Alcoa for another 50 years. We need to reserve the flexibility to control our own destiny—not “outsource” it to a multinational corporation that has a poor record of stewardship and corporate responsibility in our region.
  • “Since the operation of the Badin smelting works is dependent upon the availability of power supply, Carolina Aluminum must regard its smelting activities at Badin to be limited to the term of the license of the Yadkin Project, which is its source of power supply. In formulating its plans, and weighing the advisability of the $37,000,000 program, the management of Carolina Aluminum had to assume, therefore, that power would be available from the Yadkin Project at economically feasible rates only during the original license term. Under Section 14 of the Act, any project may be “recaptured” at the expiration of the license term. In formulating its plans, therefore, the management of Carolina Aluminum could not rely upon any assured source of power supply after the expiration of its license for the Yadkin Project”
  • The “project properties” are held in trust by the Government for the people. It is the “project properties” that a multi-national, foreign controlled, private enterprise is trying to “hijack” away from “we the people”.
  • Alcoa has never owned “the riverbed”. The do pay taxes in an attempt to lay claim to the riverbed. The state constitution and federal law does not support their claim. With that said, refer back to the 1958 license agreement. Alcoa gave up rights to the submerged land “the project property” in exchange for the monopoly use of the water as free fuel for a guaranteed profit for 50 years. Article 14 of the The Federal Power Act clearly spells out the option Alcoa gave the Federal Government in exchange for the use of the “peoples waters”.
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CHALCO - 0 views

  •  In recent years, the "go-out" process of central government-owned enterprises has been accelerated, and CHINALCO has been a star in the "go-out" drama of the central government-owned enterprises. Following is an interview with CHINALCO Party Secretary and President Xiong Weiping ——
  • This marks another major step forward for CHINALCO down the road of developing resources overseas.
  • We tried to get aligned to the leading international companies, and also approached the best private companies in China to learn from them. We reformed our management system and management structure. We changed our practices in selecting leaders
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  • After two years of all-round and in-depth structural adjustment, the single line of aluminum business in the past was expanded into nine lines of business including aluminum, copper, rare metals & rare earth, resource exploration, international engineering, international trade, energy, finance, and overseas investment, and we already had the structure of a diversified mining company.
  • Xiong Weiping: Yes. During the first year of the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, we have set a strategic goal of "becoming a world-class mining company with the biggest growth potential".
  • To become a world-class mining company, we need to create another CHINALCO in the next 10 years. Obviously, it would be very hard to realize this goal within China's territory, and we must go out and participate in global competition and collaboration.
  • The ups and downs in the collaboration can also be positive and meaningful. CHINALCO has established its status in negotiation and cooperation with major western mining companies, and has obtained certain participation right and a bigger say.
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Alcoa and Chinese Rival Buy 12% Stake in Rio Tinto - New York Times - 0 views

  • SHANGHAI — The state-owned giant Aluminum Corporation of China and the Aluminum Corporation of America stunned analysts and investors Friday by buying a minority stake in Rio Tinto, the world’s third largest mining company.
  • “The Chinese are probably the best capitalists that communism will ever have given birth to,” said Michelle Applebaum, head of an independent steel equity research firm in Chicago.
  • Last year, China’s state-controlled sovereign wealth fund — another increasingly visible and controversial measure of the new wealth of the nation — invested in the private equity firm Blackstone. Later, it paid about $5 billion to buy a small stake in Morgan Stanley.
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  • Now, China appears to be making another bold play to capture the natural resources it needs to fuel its fast-growing economy.
  • Most of the $14 billion came from Chinalco, which is ultimately controlled by the government in Beijing. Alcoa, which is based in Pittsburgh, contributed only about $1.2 billion to purchase the Rio stake.
  • "We believe that the Chinese recognize that control will likely be elusive — if not impossible — and that ownership of its raw material resources is key to the future.”
  • The statement, analysts say, was a hint that the two could team up with other companies or entities, possibly from China, to bid for all of Rio and wage a tough takeover battle with BHP, driving up the price of Rio shares.
  • partly because of suspicions that the Chinese government could be behind the deal.
  • Neither Chinalco nor Alcoa have the cash or stock to make a $150 billion bid, analysts say. Shares of Alcoa are worth about $30 billion and Chinalco shares in China are worth about $50 billion.
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The Jamestown Foundation: China Makes Strides in Energy "Go-out" Strategy - 0 views

  • Yet this new strategy is taking the shape of a formula of “loans-for-energy,” which involves a mix of state-owned and private actors.
  • hese complex arrangements indicate that China’s expansion of overseas-energy assets is a long term goal and that it is increasingly interested in securing Chinese outward investments from its international partners.
  • Put more of China’s $2 trillion foreign reserves into hard assets -- Zhang Guobao, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission and head of the NEA, had pointed out in a signed article published in December 2008 in the People’s Daily (a strong indication of being authoritative statements of government policy) that China should seize the timing of the oil price slump on the  international market to increase imports and Chinese enterprises are encouraged by the government to expand overseas (China Daily, March 9).
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  • his model is more in line with the Chinese government’s preference for financing acquisitions, since it gives Chinese NOCs direct ownership of resources. In contrast to the other three deals, Chinese NOCs could only extend loans to foreign NOCs for guaranteed oil supplies or possible special access to future exploration projects.
  • China’s new venture with Kazakhstan deviates from the “oil-for-loans” formula. The $5 billion loan from CNPC will give Chinese oil firms a 50 percent stake in the joint purchase of MangistauMunaiGaz (MMG), Kazakhstan’s biggest private oil and gas company (Reuters, April 17). This deal is more like a “loan-for-oil assets” transaction than one of “loan-for-promised-oil supply," which characterizes the previous three contracts, and CNPC will receive half of the oil that will be produced by the jointly owned MMG (the other 50 percent will be owned by the Kazak state-owned firm KazMunaiGas).
  • he global economic crisis has presented China with a rare opportunity to trade its abundant foreign currency reserves for oil, mineral and other resources around the world. China now has roughly $2 trillion in foreign exchange, ranking number one in the world, and many state firms are also flush with funds (The Associated Press, February 18). Beijing is considering setting up an oil stabilization fund to support purchases of overseas resources by Chinese oil companies. The plan was submitted at NEA’s National Work Conference on Energy held in March 2009 (Xinhua News Agency, March 2).
  • The recent large energy activities are not the first time Chinese NOCs have entered “loans-for-oil” deals. In 2004, Chinese banks financed Rosneft’s acquisition of Yuganskneftegaz with a $6 billion loan and CNPC received a pledge of long-term supply contracts via rail in exchange (Platts Community News, February 19)
  • These “loans-for-oil” activities will remain an active component of the Chinese overseas resource acquisition strategy given the current global economic and energy conditions.
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Secret Cable: China Said To Coordinate Google Attack : NPR - 0 views

  • Google reported in January 2010 that its computer infrastructure in China had been hit by a "highly sophisticated" attack that resulted in the theft of company secrets. Google also said it had evidence that a goal of the attackers was to gain access to the Gmail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists.
  • At the time, the company did not blame the Chinese government for the intrusion. But shortly thereafter, a U.S. diplomat in Beijing confidentially cabled Washington that "a well placed contact" was claiming the Google attack had been "coordinated" by the Chinese government "at the Politburo Standing Committee level."
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Steel chief hits out at US-China plant critics - FT.com - 0 views

  • plan to build a steel plant in the US partly funded by one of China’s biggest steel companies has hit out at his critics, saying that objections to the scheme are a “ploy” by established US companies to block fair competition.
  • John Correnti, chief executive and part owner of Steel Development, which intends to construct a $168m plant in Amory, Mississippi, with the aid of investment by state-owned Anshan Iron & Steel, dismissed as “ludicrous” a claim by a group of US congressmen that the involvement of a Chinese company could potentially damage US national security.
  • Mr Correnti’s project in Mississippi – which he says is part of a bigger $2bn scheme to build a total of four steel plants in undisclosed locations US-wide – comes at a difficult time for the country’s steel industry which was severely affected by the 2008-09 economic crisis and is recovering only slowly.
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  • It also exacerbates tensions between the US and China.
  • Parts of the US business community are concerned at what they regard as a “mercantilist” approach to industry by Beijing, under which the country is said to use levers such as the undervalued renminbi to help Chinese companies.
  • Tom Danjczek, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, a trade group, which represents most of the large mini-mill companies, said his members “particularly objected” to the presence in Mr Correnti’s investment group of Anshan. That was on the grounds that the company benefited from Beijing’s assistance, in the form “of easy access to government loans and an artificially low currency”. State-owned Anshan benefited from such government help in a way that was denied to its competitors in the US, he said. In a letter sent in July to Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, a group of Congressmen representing steel producing districts claimed the planned involvement of Anshan in the Amory project could threaten US national security.
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When Foreign Countries Want to Buy into U.S. Nuclear Power Plants - What Then... - 0 views

  • For example, U.S. national policy makers have worked to make sure sensitive military and defense technology and production remain with American companies.
  • After 9/11, concerns grew that foreign ownership of U.S. infrastructure could increase our vulnerability to terrorist attacks. One example is the heated debate triggered by the 2006 purchase of a company that ran U.S. ports by the United Arab Emirates-owned company Dubai Ports World. (Dubai Ports eventually sold its interests to a U.S. company.) More recently, globalization of the nuclear industry and the weak U.S. economy have attracted significant levels of foreign investment in the U.S. nuclear industry
  • The Atomic Energy Act prohibits the NRC from issuing a license to any entity that the Commission believes is “owned, controlled or dominated by an alien, a foreign corporation or foreign government.” Broadly speaking, the foreign ownership prohibition protects the “common defense and security” of the United States, even though this may prevent some nations from participating in U.S. nuclear joint ventures.
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  • mitigate foreign control issues
  • Len Skoblar March 1, 2011 at 6:53 am Actually, I think the time has come to end this dance. Energy is a strategic commodity…period. Our country’s very survival depends upon it. So let us dispense with the distraction (and risk) that “foreign investment” brings to the dance. The US government should subsidize indigenous energy production in all its manifestations and forms to eliminate the need for foreign investment. That would be tax dollars well spent. And NRC could then bring even more focus and resources to its primary mission….nuclear safety.
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Whose water is it anyway!? - 0 views

  • COALITION OF CITIZENS, POLITICIANS AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS BATTLE ALCOA TO RETURN THE YADKIN RIVER TO THE PEOPLE
  • “The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life,” Roosevelt told Congress in 1907.
  • Naujoks referred to Teddy Roosevelt’s well known opposition to corporate monopolies and his firm belief the nation’s natural resources belong to the people. Naujoks cited Roosevelt’s philosophy to highlight the disparity between the legendary president’s philosophy and FERC’s policies
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  • Gov. Beverly Perdue officially came on board with the Yadkin River Coalition — a group of local businessmen, citizens and politicians who oppose Alcoa’s re-licensing efforts — last September and her influence has proved invaluable to the cause.
  • The governor’s office filed papers with the FERC “seeking return of the right to plan the use of the Yadkin River flows and the Yadkin hydroelectric project for the benefit of the people of North Carolina,” according to a press release
  • Recapturing the water rights to the Yadkin is essential to the health and well being of the citizens of the nearly 25 counties that comprise the Yadkin River Basin, Perdue stated.
  • “Given the Yadkin River’s broad impact on the state, we believe strongly that the state is the most appropriate body to plan use of this invaluable natural resource, to help assure the region’s municipal water supply and quality and to facilitate future growth and development,” Perdue stated.
  • “Given the Yadkin River’s broad impact on the state, we believe strongly that the state is the most appropriate body to plan use of this invaluable natural resource, to help assure the region’s municipal water supply and quality and to facilitate future growth and development,” Perdue stated.
  • The Badin Works aluminum smelting plant did bring 1,000 jobs to the area after Alcoa applied for its water rights license in 1958. But Alcoa, a multi-billion dollar corporation and the world’s largest producer of aluminum, ceased operations at the plant in 2007. The plant employed only 377 people when it shut down, said Alcoa spokesman Gene Ellis.
  • One of the first legislators to take their side was NC Sen. Fletcher L. Hartsell Jr., who represents Cabarrus and Iredell counties. Hartsell came on board with the Yadkin River Coalition two years ago after meeting with Dick, Jim Nance, a former board member of the NC Department of Transportation, and Stanly County Commissioner Lindsey Dunevant at his legislative offices in Raleigh.
  • But after he studied the Federal Power Act, he became fascinated with the issue of Alcoa attempting to maintain its monopoly over the 38-mile stretch of the Yadkin. Convinced of the appropriateness of the coalition’s cause, Hartsell signed on and recruited fellow Republican state senator, Stan Bingham.
  • “As far as I’m concerned, Alcoa got the gold mine and we got the shaft,” Bingham said
  • “The little town of Denton is having to pay [Alcoa] for the use of the water coming down the Yadkin for drinking,” Bingham said. “The way that’s calculated is they charge because it’s a loss of power generation…. This whole thing was done many, many years ago, and a lot of people didn’t think about the people they were dealing with at the time.”
  • “Alcoa and others keep talking about it being a ‘taking’ [of property],” Hartsell said. “It’s not a taking; it’s not even close to it. All we’re asking Alcoa to do is to fulfill the obligations that were identified in 1958 that they agreed to.”
  • “They acknowledged when the license was up, they no longer had the right to use the property,” Hartsell explained. “We’re saying there needs to be an equivalency for the run of our river, and when I say ‘our,’ I mean everybody’s. It’s not a private entity. The feds and the state have had control of the run of the rivers since the beginning of the republic.” The language of the Federal Power Act includes a stipulation that the controlling entity, in this case Alcoa, must estimate the recapture value of the resource in the event it must surrender the rights to that resource, Hartsell said. “There is a statutory formula for how you calculate recapture and Alcoa computed it to be $24.2 million in 2006,” Hartsell said.
  • Yadkin River Trust Bil
  • The bill clearly outlines the three primary issues at stake — A) who controls the waters of the Yadkin for the next 50 years; B) the environmental issue related to the condition or quality of the water itself and the immediate environs; and C) the use of the electricity generated by the run of the river.
  • “[Alcoa] signed an agreement. We’re just asking them to live up to their own word,” he said. “The state of North Carolina intervened 50 years ago on Alcoa’s behalf to assist them to get a 50-year license and operate the plant at Badin, but conditions have changed dramatically. If they’re going to use it, what is the return to the people of the state on the state’s investment in the raw material, which is the water? That water is owned by the people.”
  • Alcoa’s re-licensing application represents “the mother of all incentives,” Hartsell said. “They want the state to concede they should have $1 billion in benefit over the next 50 years and provide nothing to the state,” he said.
  • “Why should we give it away?” Hartsell continued. “From an economic development perspective, energy is the major issue associated with job growth and development regardless of the industry.”
  • He pointed out that Alcoa is capitalizing on the hydroelectric energy generated by the Yadkin by selling electricity “on the grid” rather than investing in the local communities.
  • “We’re dealing with John Dillinger and Al Capone,” Bingham said. “Alcoa reaps [millions] in profits each year and North Carolina gets zilch.”
  • An environmental study commissioned by Stanly County and conducted by professor John Rodgers of Clemson University last year established a connection between contami nation of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in fish and soil samples taken from Badin Lake near Alcoa’s Badin Works operation. Rodgers’ findings led the Yadkin River Coalition to appeal the waterquality certification issued by the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, or DENR. Administrative Law Judge Joe Webster granted an injunction on May 26 prohibiting DENR from issuing a 401 Water Quality Certification to Alcoa until the full appeal is heard.
  • The state issued a fish-consumption advisory for Badin Lake between Stanly and Montgomery counties last February due to elevated levels of PCBs found in largemouth bass and catfish
  • Alcoa attempted to block the advisory by filing a legal appeal. The company claimed that the state “changed its stated evaluation criteria after the study was complete and held Badin Lake to a different standard than the other lakes and rivers in North Carolina,” according to a posting on a company website.
  • Bingham said Alcoa’s objection to the posting of the fish-consumption advisory speaks volumes about their concern for the people who swim and fish at Badin Lake.
  • “It just tells me how they do business,” Bingham said. “They fought the fish-advisory signs; they say we’re taking their property and we have no rights to the water. We’re stuck with the bastards, at least for the moment, but I feel good about the direction of the fight we’re taking on in the future.”
  • Naujoks said he’s concerned about the high concentration of PCBs in the landfills and dumping sites near Alcoa’s four hydroelectric dams. Naujoks said Alcoa has not been entirely forthcoming about the number of waste dumping sites in and around their facilities.
  • They’re not showing us where all the buried bodies are found. As we start digging down through the layers, we’re going to find much more.”
  • “Alcoa knows they can’t hide these dumping sites,” Naujoks said
  • A PROMISING FUTURE Bingham said once Perdue joined the Yadkin River Coalition, it changed everything. “It’s been wonderful; it’s been extremely important,” he said. “We were facing a multi-billion-dollar corporation, but when the governor lis tened to our pleas, they began to take this extremely seriously. They realized they’re in for a fight.”
  • Bingham said the coalition will never quit until the Yadkin River is returned to the people of North Carolina.
  • “Our legal case could take years to resolve, but the campaign to support the legislation through the coalition and FERC re-licensing could be decided within the next year,” he said. “We will work on a targeted campaign to unify and strengthen grassroots efforts of local governments, public interest organizations, businesses and individuals to reclaim the waters of the Yadkin River to benefit the public interest.”
  • Bingham said he can see a day in the near future when the Yadkin is returned to the people and the economy of the 25 counties in the Yadkin River Basin begin to flourish.
  • The NC Department of Health and Human Services issued a fish-consumption advisory last February on Badin Lake after high levels of PCBs were found in fish tissue samples. Alcoa unsuccessfully filed a legal challenge to the advisory last April. The advisory remains in effect.
  • We can offer industry power at a reduced rate and that plays a big part in manufacturing,” he said. “That would be a tremendous incentive. For years, we’ve stood by the sidelines and watched industries go elsewhere. We don’t have anything to offer industry
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Yadkin's waters are gold mine worth more than Alcoa offers | CharlotteObserver.com & Th... - 0 views

  • In what essentially amounts to a bribe, company officials are dangling a pennies-on-the dollar carrot with the soft promise of a few hundred jobs when they know as well as we do that our Yadkin waters are worth thousands and thousands of jobs
  • Alcoa also expects us to set aside evidence that surfaced last fall in court indicating that it had intentionally withheld from the state material information on dissolved oxygen problems as it was seeking water certification. The snare is an insult to our wise citizens.
  • Our government and business leaders are committed to bringing substantial jobs to our state that equate to the true value of our water
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  • We also demand the safety of our water for drinking along with its environmental soundness. Alcoa should know that the good people of North Carolina aren't taking the bait.
  •  
    Don't Take the Bait!
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TVA: TVA and Economic Development - 0 views

  • Delivering reliable, competitively priced power that makes the Valley an attractive place to start or expand a business
  • Providing state and local governments across the Valley with annual tax-equivalent payments that help support education, road construction and other vital community needs. 
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The Wal-Martization of Alcoa - Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights - 0 views

  • Alcoa has taken what were high-tech, good-paying auto parts manufacturing jobs and reduced them to the lowest rung sweatshop production, replete with gross human rights violations, starvation wages and total lack of respect for workers' legal rights.  At least this is the case at Alcoa's four wire harness manufacturing plants in the El Porvenir Free Trade Zone in Honduras.
  • We were told that when companies like Alcoa, with their higher tech jobs, enter the developing world, wages, benefits and working conditions would all improve, notching up standards across the country.   Certainly this has not been the case with Alcoa's auto parts production in Honduras, which is actually lowering standards and even undercutting low-end garment sweatshops.
  • If Alcoa-a Fortune 500 company-can step on Honduran law and treat the government like a Banana Republic, then the race to the bottom in the global sweatshop economy will have reached new lows.  If Alcoa can so blatantly ignore the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement and ignore the treaty's worker rights provisions as just so many words on useless pieces of paper-then we need to revisit and renegotiate CAFTA, for something is seriously wrong.
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Chrystia Freeland | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters.com - 0 views

  • “Our only destiny can be as a high-tech exporter, that creates jobs, high-paying jobs … Export-led growth is the key to national success.”
  • it is suggested that this “business model that works for them” is Communist authoritarianism. “That has been very effective,” he said. “They’re in their 12th five-year plan and they’ve done quite well.”
  • ” The China challenge, in Immelt’s view, is about much more than a manipulated exchange rate and “cheap labor.” “It is the adaptability, it is the speed with which they move, it is the unanimity of purpose, it is the productivity of thought,
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  • In the U.S. public discourse, the big strain in the American-Chinese economic relationship is the yuan, and what many Americans view as the government-manipulated undervaluation of the Chinese currency.
  • “It is going to be the biggest economy in the world,” Immelt said of China. “The only question is when.”
  • the American consumer was the definitive driver of the global economy.” But Immelt said the future will be different. For the next 25 years, he said, the American consumer “is not going to be the engine of global growth. It is going to be the billion people joining the middle class in Asia, it is going to be what the resource-rich countries do with their new-found wealth of high oil prices. That’s the game.” A lot of that game will be played in China. At a moment when it is compulsory on the American right to pay homage to the exceptionalism of the United States, Immelt, a life-long Republican, is matter-of-fact about China’s inevitable rise.
  •  
    Jeffery Immelt on American going "ALL-IN" interview with Chrystia Freeland
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Jeff Immelt's Plan To Save The Economy: More Solyndras Please - 0 views

  • They propose establishing the "Clean Energy Deployment Administration" as proposed by Senate Democrats, saying that if properly funded, it could create more than 100,000 jobs.
  • ncluding the creation of a new government "financing institution" funding by up to $8 billion from the Treasury to "boost and maintain annual energy investments" to $30 billion or $40 billion annually.
  •  
    Jeff Immelt - Jobs Council -
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GE's Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt on GE, Job Creation and the Economy | GE Reports - 0 views

  • Immelt said “certainty of demand” is required to spur hiring.
  • Immelt said that the “government in the U.S. has always been a catalyst to drive growth. This is not President Obama versus President Bush: The [National Institute of Health] has been a catalyst for the world’s best healthcare system. The Defense Department spawned… the Internet and modern transportation technology for generations. The nuclear industry was built [by] the Defense Department.”
  • Infrastructure is a facilitator of competitiveness and productivity… whether it’s broadband or highways or ports or electricity grids
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  • Businesses consider an area’s transportation system
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China Reportedly Hacked Chamber Of Commerce : NPR - 0 views

  • That's called social engineering and it's a widely used technique, especially by Chinese hackers.
  • ou say Chinese hackers and there's been a lot of reports about cyber espionage stemming from China. What's going on here? GJELTEN: You know, Lynn, all the cyber security people we talked to say there's just a ton of cyber espionage coming out of China these days. Hackers are stealing technological secrets, trade secrets, computer code, design plans, you name it. The security people say it's like a vacuum cleaner approach. They just suck up everything they find.
  • But what's behind this is that China wants to catch up to the west. Now, they don't have the business environment to support innovation. You don't see the Chinese equivalent of companies like IBM or Google or Apple popping up there, so rather than develop their own ideas and technology, they just steal it. That's the background here. At least, that's what we hear from U.S. intelligence officials and security people. NEARY: And the Chinese government's not acknowledging any role in this attack on the chamber of commerce? GJELTEN: They say there's no evidence, but cyber security people who have investigated other intrusions blamed on China say it's pretty easy to tie them back there and it's hard to see how the government would not be involved in some way, given the way China works. Chamber officials say they have no doubt that this intrusion did come from China.
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China's Cyber Threat A High-Stakes Spy Game : NPR - 0 views

  • The cloak-and-dagger world of corporate espionage is alive and well, and China seems to have the advantage. Their cyber-espionage program is becoming more and more effective at swiping information from America's public and private sectors. The U.S. government has even blamed
  • China publicly for hacking American industries
  • but Chinese hackers have even broken into and stolen plans from American furniture manufacturers.
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  • "You can see the immediate economic benefit: You don't have to pay for the design, you can build it cheaper, and you can offer the same product at a lower price," he says. "That hurts our economy."
  • "Those are 10,000 jobs that would be in this economy, that would employ Americans, that are gone because of Chinese economic espionage," he says.
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