No, that was the sales pitch. US solar companies contribute very little to political campaigns. Their lobbying power is very limited. Their influence is compa

No, that was the sales pitch. US solar companies contribute very little to political campaigns. Their lobbying power is very limited. Their influence is comparable (or less, even) to the US steel industry which has faced dumping and basically been told to go fuck themselves. The utilities industry, on the other hand, contributes a lot of cash to political campaigns, and has already been caught trying to influence legislators in an attempt to kill domestic solar demand (lobbying vociferously through back channels to eliminate the FIT). This is exactly what they want. That was enough to make me suspicious enough to read a large chunk of the very dull document by the US dept of state that tried to justify characterizing China's solar exports as dumping. Many of the things in the document were clutching at straws (e.g. complaining about 'free publicity' given by the local government by listing the solar companies on their website).