South African President Zuma Visits Namibia to Commemorate 20thAnniversary of Independence

PR-ZUMA-NAMIBIA

SAPA PR — PRESIDENT JACOB G. ZUMA ARRIVES IN NAMIBIA TO ATTEND THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY

Mar 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM

ISSUED BY: DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION

ATTENTION: NEWS EDITORS

21 MARCH 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

PRESIDENT JACOB G. ZUMA ARRIVES IN NAMIBIA TO ATTEND THE 20TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF NAMIBIA AND THE INAUGURATION OF
THE COUNTRY’S PRESIDENT H. POHAMBA

Today, Sunday 21 March 2010, President Jacob G. Zuma of the
Repulic of South Africa, will attend the 20th independence
anniversary of Namibia and the inauguration of His Excellency Mr H.
Pohamba, for a second term as the President of the Republic of
Namibia, at the country’s Independence Stadium.

The celebrations were preceded by an Official Gala Dinner which
was hosted by President Pohamba in honour of the Heads of
States/Governments last night.

President Zuma’s visit to Namibia comes shortly after his
successful visit Zimbabwe where he met with the leadership of Zanu
PF and MDC who are the signatory to the Global Peace Agreement in
the Government of National Unity.

The president is accompanied by South Africa’s International
Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

For further information contact Ministerial Spokesperson Mr
Malusi Mogale at 0826750380

Issued by the Department of International Relations and
Cooperation
Private Bag x152
Pretoria
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Report says China is squeezing U.S. firms out of its massive wind-power market

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, March 18, 2010
By JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News jlanders@dallasnews.com
WASHINGTON – U.S. companies are getting squeezed out of the big Chinese wind-power market even as Dallas investors are bringing Chinese firms here via a big wind farm in Texas, according to a new industry report.
“They’ve used every measure you could possibly think of to enhance production of renewable energy equipment in China,” said report author Alan Wolff of the trade law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk won a pledge from the Chinese last fall to drop rules giving preference to Chinese makers of wind-power equipment. But Kirk’s office hasn’t seen any evidence that the pledge has been carried out, said spokeswoman Carol Guthrie.
Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers are entering the U.S. wind market under a joint venture led by Dallas investor Cappy McGarr.
McGarr’s U.S. Renewable Energy Group, with Cielo Wind Power LP of Austin and China’s Shenyang Power Group, is planning a $1.5 billion, 600-megawatt wind farm on 36,000 acres in West Texas.
Several U.S. senators have complained that the West Texas project would use hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. economic stimulus funds for wind turbines built in China. They introduced a bill this month that would halt federal funding of renewable energy projects until “buy American” requirements are written into law.
McGarr’s Chinese partners announced plans last week to build a wind turbine factory in Nevada, and McGarr says most of the jobs for the West Texas project will be American.
“A minimum of 70 percent of each wind turbine in the … project, including the massive towers and blades, will be wholly manufactured in the United States and made entirely of American steel,” McGarr said.
Dewey & LeBoeuf’s report on China’s renewable energy equipment market was done for a U.S. industry group, the National Foreign Trade Council, where concern about China’s market restrictions and treatment of foreign firms is growing.
“If you’re not operating under a rule-of-law country, if you have no place to adjudicate, and there are places where the country has stacked the deck against you, you may look for somewhere else” to do business, said trade council president Bill Reinsch.
Some wind power advocates are urging everyone to calm down and are particularly concerned about the Senate “Buy American” bill.
“This proposal would torpedo one of the most successful job creation efforts of the Recovery Act [the economic stimulus program], which has already preserved half of the 85,000 American jobs in the U.S. wind industry,” said Denise Bode, president of the American Wind Energy Association.
“Rather than adopt policies that will kill American jobs, Congress should enact policies that will create jobs by encouraging manufacturers to invest in U.S. plants,” she said.
Six years ago, foreign wind turbine manufacturers held 82 percent of the Chinese market, but they now have a 10 percent share, according to the Dewey & LeBoeuf study.
Because of off-and-on incentives for wind power in the United States, foreign manufacturers have dominated here as well, says the American Wind Energy Association. Even so, the United States is the largest wind-power producer, with Texas leading the states in wind-generated electricity.
Once a national market evolves, equipment suppliers tend to build manufacturing plants closer to wind farms to avoid shipping expenses for the large machines, said Lutz Weischer, a research analyst with the Washington-based World Resources Institute.
“Putting a moratorium on wind projects could have the unintended consequence of making your market less stable and slowing the growth in employment,” he said.
Citing Chinese press reports, Weischer also argued that China is living up to its pledge to drop local content rules for wind energy equipment. GE, the largest U.S.-based wind turbine company, reached a deal in January to sell 88 turbines to three smaller Chinese wind farms.
Wolff said he and his colleagues found no evidence that China is reopening its market. In August, the Chinese announced they would build a series of enormous wind farms, each designed to generate 20 times as much electricity as McGarr’s West Texas project, with preferences for local equipment manufacturers.
“Some of those projects will reportedly have [wind turbine] towers 30 stories high. They’re building them in valleys, in deserts; they’re really taking advantage of their resource,” said Dewey & LeBoeuf attorney Tom Howell.
Foreign manufacturers haven’t won any of the equipment contracts for those jobs or any others developed by the Chinese central government since 2005, Howell said.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is one of the sponsors of legislation that would add “Buy American” requirements for wind projects built with government stimulus funding.
“We cannot sit idly by while China races to the forefront of clean energy production at the expense of U.S. manufacturing, U.S. jobs and U.S. energy independence,” he said.
By choosing to build a turbine factory in Nevada, the Chinese at the very least may have slowed Brown’s bill. The turbine plant provides an economic boost to Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is facing a tough re-election challenge later this year.

Poll: Worries about environment hit low

Americans’ worries about environmental issues have hit a 20-year low, largely because of economic concerns, according to a Gallup Poll released Tuesday.

Fewer adults worry “a great deal” about each of eight issues surveyed, including global warming, than a year ago, according to the poll of 1,014 Americans taken March 4-7. Their concerns about six of the issues hit record lows.

At the same time, in findings Gallup will release later this week, a record number — 53% — say economic growth takes precedence, even if it hurts the environment, says Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor in chief.

“The economy is swamping everything,” Newport says. Also, questions about the science of global warming are affecting other issues, he says. “The whole environmental realm has been politicized.”

Over time, Americans’ concerns about environmental problems have generally declined. After this year’s drop, for six of the eight items, the percentage who worry “a great deal” is at the lowest point Gallup has measured, which in some cases dates to 1989. The two exceptions are global warming (low point was 24% in 1997) and maintenance of the nation’s fresh water supply for household needs (35% in 2001).

One major reason Americans may be less worried about environmental problems is that they perceive environmental conditions in the United States to be improving.

The decline in worry over time has been rather dramatic for some of these threats. For example, in 1989, 72% of Americans said they worried a great deal about pollution of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Worry about this environmental issue averaged 62% in the 1990s, 54% in the 2000s, and is 46% today.

Oil and gas companies have spent millions of dollars on ads to oppose a bill in the Senate that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says Bob Deans of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“That does have an impact” on public opinion, Deans says. He’s not surprised by the findings, given unemployment and foreclosures. “People have a lot on their worry plate.”

Still, he says, other surveys show that people want Congress to tackle global warming, so he doesn’t expect Gallup’s poll to make the bill a harder sell.

The poll numbers are disappointing, but they “don’t capture what motivates environmental legislation,” which is “intensity,” says Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, which promotes clean air and water policies.

The Gallup Poll finds that of eight environmental issues, Americans worry least about global warming and most about drinking-water pollution.

Even so, it cites record lows of 50% in the share of those who worry “a great deal” about drinking-water pollution, 33% on the loss of tropical rain forests, 31% on the extinction of plant and animal species. The poll finds lower concerns on three other issues:

• Waterways pollution, 46% are concerned today, down from 72% in 1989.

• Toxic waste contamination of air and water, 44% now, 69% in 1989.

• Air pollution, 38% today, 63% in 1989.

Global warming concerns have fallen dramatically since 2007, when 41% worried “a great deal” about the issue; 28% worry today.

In conclusion, Americans are now less worried about a series of environmental problems than at any time in the past 20 years.

• That could be due in part to Americans’ belief that environmental conditions in the U.S. are improving.
• It also may reflect greater public concern about economic issues, which is usually associated with a drop in environmental concern.
• And greater action on environmental issues at the federal, state, and local levels may also contribute to a decline in Americans’ environmental worry.

Gallup’s findings, based on land-line and cellphone interviews, have a margin of error of +/–4 percentage points

Source:
USA Today, “Poll: Worries about environment hit low“, accessed March 17, 2010
Gallup, “In U.S., Many Environmental Issues at 20-Year-Low Concern“, accessed March 17, 2010

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