Skip to main content

RNC Slams Obama for 'Renewable Outsourcing'

Support Provided By
Screen shot 2012-07-11 at 1.16.47 PM.png

Map from the Obamanomics Outsourced GOP website

As the Presidential election campaign heats up, backers of Republican Mitt Romney are working to counter criticisms of their candidate's ties to Bain Capital and its alleged outsourcing of American jobs. A Republican National Committee campaign website launched yesterday morning called "Obamanomics Outsourced" takes the "I know you are but what am I" route, accusing President Obama of sending tax dollars overseas by subsidizing renewable energy.

Among the charges, some of which have been repeated by Romney in recent campaign speeches:


  • Spain's Iberdrola Renewables received $1.5 billion in loans and grants but has just 850 U.S. employees
  • Some of the solar panels for SunPower's $1.3 billion Stimulus-backed California Solar Valley Ranch will be manufactured at their facility in Mexico rather than their facility in California
  • Korean electric vehicle battery manufacturers given $300 million to build plants in Michigan are hiring foreign nationals to fill jobs that could be going to U.S. workers
  • The Gulf Wind Project spent some of its $179 million Stimulus Grant on parts From South Korea, Japan, and Mexico
  • ABB Inc. received over $16 million in stimulus funds to create green energy manufacturing jobs then laid off U.S. workers and moved operations to Mexico

According to Michael Shear and Richard Oppel Jr. in the New York Times, a number of the allegations are either misleading or incorrect. Barry Dillon, a spokesman for the North Carolina-based energy technology company ABB, told the Times that his company employs 19,000 people in the U.S., and 8,000 in Canada and Mexico. "In a detailed e-mail," wrote Shear and Oppel, "Mr. Dillon wrote that the company has been expanding in both the United States and Mexico to meet rising demands of the market."

The GOP also seems to have goofed on its allegations regarding SunPower and the California Solar Valley Ranch: it was actually SunPower's colleague NRG that received stimulus funding for the Ranch, and many of SunPower's PV units to be installed at the Ranch are being made in Milpitas.

The GOP site also claims:

After receiving a $500 million loan guarantee, Fisker Automotive Is producing their $100K luxury electric sports car In Finland.

According to Shear and Oppel, Fisker took only $193 million in loans, which were approved during the Bush administration. Though Fisker is indeed building its first cars in Finland, the company claims all funding from the Bush loans was spent on U.S. operations.

Of the 33 examples of "outsourcing" on the Obamanomics Outsourced site, all but three are renewable energy related. (The exceptions are GM opening a diesel engine plant in Thailand, a $1.5 million EPA grant to Indonesia to improve air quality, and a contract with the Melanoma Institute of Australia to provide tumor samples to the US's National Cancer Institute.) It seems clear that the Obama administration's emphasis on renewables will continue to draw fire from his opposition as the election draws closer.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.