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Tag: Batteries

  • America’s Tai faces uphill battle to defuse EU trade war fears

    America’s Tai faces uphill battle to defuse EU trade war fears

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    PRAGUE — U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai traveled more than 4,000 miles to prevent a transatlantic trade war over electric vehicles, but her EU counterparts signaled on Monday that they would be a tough crowd to win round.

    The growing spat hinges on U.S. legislation that encourages consumers via tax credits to “Buy American” when it comes to choosing an electric car.

    At a time when the U.S. and Europe want to present a united front against Russia, this protectionist measure has triggered outrage in many EU countries, including France and Germany, two leading European carmaking nations. Beyond the EU, China, Japan and South Korea have also voiced concern.

    After speaking with Tai at a meeting of EU ministers in Prague, the bloc’s trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis predicted it would be difficult to resolve the dispute.

    “It will not be easy to fix it  — but fix it we must,” he said.

    Among the 27 EU countries, anxiety about the U.S. measure is growing. Sweden’s new trade minister, Johan Forssell, whose country takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU in January, told POLITICO on Sunday that aspects of the U.S. legislation were “worrying” and “not in accordance with [World Trade Organization] rules.” 

    Another senior official stressed: “It’s not only one or two member states, which are concerned … It’s also the small ones; they will have no access at all” to the U.S. market.

    French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed over lunch last week that the EU should retaliate if Washington pushed ahead with the controversial bill. Macron floated the idea of a “Buy European Act” to strike back. 

    The new tax credits for electric vehicles are part of a huge U.S. tax, climate and health care package, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the U.S. Congress in August.

    The idea is that a U.S. consumer can claim back $7,500 of the value of an electric car from their tax bill. To qualify for that credit, however, the car needs to be assembled in North America and contain a battery with a certain percentage of the metals mined or recycled in the U.S., Canada or Mexico. 

    Czech Trade Minister Jozef Síkela, whose country currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, said that European carmakers wanted to qualify for the scheme, just as the North Americans do.  

    In its current form, the bill is “unacceptable,” and “is extremely protective against exports from Europe,” said Síkela as he walked into Monday’s meeting. “We simply expect that we will get the same status as Canada and Mexico.” 

    U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis | Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

    “But we need to be realistic,” Síkela told reporters later. “This is our starting point in the negotiations and we’ll see what we’ll manage to negotiate at the end.”

    In a bid to soothe tensions, a joint task force was set up last week by the European Commission and the U.S. The task force is supposed to meet at the end of this week, although the exact date isn’t yet fixed, according to the senior official. 

    Asked whether Brussels would retaliate should no agreement be struck with Washington, Dombrovskis took a cautious approach: “Setting up this task force is already … a response of us, raising those concerns … At this stage, we are focusing on a negotiated solution before considering what other options there may be.” 

    The midterm elections in the U.S., where President Joe Biden’s Democrats look likely to lose ground, compound the difficulties. 

    It doesn’t seem like the tensions will be eased by the next Trade and Technology Council, which takes place between U.S. and European negotiators in early December. 

    Dismay over the U.S. subsidies has overshadowed the preparatory work for the next TTC meeting, for which the EU and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic want to see rapid concrete results to avoid the perception that the format is simply a talking shop.

    Tai herself had no immediate comment in Prague, but later released a statement on her meeting with Síkela that gave no hint of a breakthrough.

    “Ambassador Tai and Minister Síkela discussed the ongoing work of the Trade and Technology Council, and the importance of achieving meaningful results for the December TTC Ministerial and beyond.  They also discussed the newly-created U.S.-EU Task Force on the Inflation Reduction Act,” the statement said.  

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  • France plays bad cop as transatlantic trade tensions ramp up

    France plays bad cop as transatlantic trade tensions ramp up

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    PARIS — U.S. President Joe Biden needs to watch out; France is resuming its traditional role as Europe’s troublemaker on the transatlantic trade front.

    It had seemed like the bad blood between Brussels and Washington was easing on Biden’s watch. Facing a common foe in China, the EU and the U.S. last year struck a truce on the tariffs that former President Donald Trump slapped on European steel and aluminium. Over this year, Russia’s war against Ukraine has meant that America and Europe needed to present a united front, at least politically.

    Cracks are now starting to re-emerge, however. The EU is furious that the U.S. is pouring subsidies into the homegrown electric car industry. Accusing Washington of protectionism, Europe is now threatening to draw up its own defenses.

    Unsurprisingly, French President Emmanuel Macron is leading the charge. “The Americans are buying American and pursuing a very aggressive strategy of state aid. The Chinese are closing their market. We cannot be the only area, the most virtuous in terms of climate, which considers that there is no European preference,” Macron told French daily Les Echos.

    Upping the ante, he called on Brussels to support consumers and companies that buy electric cars produced in the EU, instead of ones from outside the bloc. 

    There are good reasons why the Europeans are fretting about their trade balances.

    The war has delivered a huge terms-of-trade shock, with spiraling energy costs hauling the EU into a yawning bloc-wide trade deficit of €65 billion in August, from only €7 billion a year earlier. In one manifestation of those strains, Europe’s growing reliance on American liquefied natural gas to substitute for lost Russian supplies has re-ignited tensions.

    Macron’s comments are a reflection of EU consternation over Washington’s Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivizes U.S. consumers to “Buy American” when purchasing a greener car. The EU argues that requiring that car needs to be assembled in North America and contain a battery with a certain percentage of local content discriminate against the EU and other trade partners.

    The European Commission hopes to convince Washington to find a diplomatic compromise for European carmakers and their suppliers. If not, that leaves the EU no choice but to challenge Washington at the World Trade Organization, EU officials and diplomats told POLITICO — even if a new transatlantic trade war is the last thing both sides want to spend their time and money on.

    Macron’s comments “are clearly a response against the Inflation Reduction Act,” noted Elvire Fabry, a trade policy expert at the Institut Jacques Delors in Paris. “Macron plays the role of the bad cop, compared to the European Commission, which left Washington some political room to make adjustments,” she noted. 

    ‘American domination’

    The Commission hopes to find a diplomatic compromise with the U.S. for European carmakers and their suppliers | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

    France has traditionally been the bloc’s most outspoken country when it came to confronting Washington on a wide range of trade files. Paris, for instance, played a key role in killing a transatlantic trade agreement between the EU and U.S. (the so-called “TTIP”). Its digital tax angered U.S. Big Tech and triggered a trade war with the Trump administration.

    More recently, during its rotating Council of the EU presidency, Paris focused on trade defense measures, which will give Brussels the power to retaliate against unilateral trade measures, including from the U.S.

    New tensions are bad news for the upcoming meeting of the Trade and Tech Council early December, which so far has had trouble to show that it’s more than a glorified talking shop. 

    France won’t be left alone in a possible trade war on electric cars. According to Fabry, these tensions will bring Paris and Berlin closer, as the German car industry is also particularly affected by the U.S. measures.

    But the “Buy American” approach is not the only bone of contention. The fact that Europe is increasingly relying on gas imports from the U.S. brought European discontent to the next level.

    Although gas import prices fell in September from their all-time highs in August, they were still more than 2.5 times higher than they were a year ago. And, taking into account increased purchase volumes, France’s bill for imports of LNG multiplied more than tenfold in August, year on year, by one estimate.

    Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire last week warned that Russia’s war against Ukraine should not result in “American economic domination and a weakening of Europe.” Le Maire criticized the U.S. for selling LNG to Europe “at four times the price at which it sells it to its own companies,” and called on Brussels to take action for a “more balanced economic relationship” between the two continents.

    That very same concern is shared by some Commission officials, POLITICO has learned, but also among French industrialists.

    It is “hardly contestable” that the U.S. had some economic benefits from the war in Ukraine and suffered less than Europe from its economic consequences, said Bernard Spitz, head of international and European affairs at France’s business lobby Medef. 

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  • A Deliberately Different Future for the Utility Industry

    A Deliberately Different Future for the Utility Industry

    Renowned Energy Futurist Jack Uldrich will address Wabash Valley Power in Indianapolis, IN.

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Aug 7, 2017


    Indianapolis, IN, August 7, 2017 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Global Futurist Jack Uldrich says, “The future often has a funny way of turning out differently than most people expect.” 

    The difference between expectations about the future and reality have been the cause of significant disruption in numerous industries.

    The Utilities Industry is poised for an extraordinary change in the years ahead–what has served the industry well in the past won’t be sufficient for remaining competitive in the future.

    JACK ULDRICH, FUTURIST & FOUNDER OF THE SCHOOL OF UNLEARNING

    Regarding “expecting the unexpected” in the utility industry, back in 2009 Uldrich said, “It is conventional wisdom that the world’s energy needs will grow significantly in the years ahead and the only way to meet this growing need is to build more coal and nuclear power plants. This future may come to pass but what if Smart Grid technology, LED lights, real-time pricing, and home networks dramatically reduce energy usage?”

    Fast forward to 2017, the trends he mentioned in 2009 are dramatically reducing energy usage.

    Uldrich is now asking, “What if the abundance of electrical power—and not its scarcity—is the greatest problem facing the industry in the future?

    Is the Utility Industry is prepared for such a future? He says, “The time to begin thinking about these accelerating changes is not in a few years. The time is now.”

    Today, he will deliver a keynote on the future of the industry for the Wabash Valley Power Association in Indianapolis, IN. They bill themselves as “a deliberately different kind of electric company.”

    Uldrich will discuss with them how emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Wearable Devices, the Internet of Things, and new Blockchain Technology could impact utilities in some unexpected ways. 

    As a leading energy futurist, Uldrich has addressed dozens of service associations. He has delivered customized keynote presentations to the American Public Power Association, the Northwest Public Power Association, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Wisconsin Public Power, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern Company, Northwestern Energy, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Idaho Power, Northwestern Energy, and the Western Energy Institute.

    Parties interested in learning more about Jack Uldrich, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website.

    Source: Jack Uldrich & The School of Unlearning

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