INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

International Business Environment

International Business Environment

Background about the State Of Affairs in the Green Energy Industry in the U.S and China

Energy generated from environmental friendly and non-polluting sources is known as green energy. The main sources of green energies are geothermal, solar, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass. Nuclear energy is also considered by some to be green energy. These sources are considered green because they produce low carbon emission while generating power and create less pollution in the environment. It is a fact that global warming (GW) and subsequent climate change (CC) is happening due to the emission of greenhouse gases and particulate black carbon as a consequence or by product of energy generation. Greenhouse gases are mostly produced from the burning of fossil fuels like gasoline (petrol, diesel, kerosene, and other petroleum products), coal, and natural gases to produce energy (Boyle, 2004, pp: 26).

Green energy is also known as renewable energy (RE) because most of the green sources are renewable. Green power is commonly used for electricity, heating, and cogeneration purpose. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, green power is a subset of RE and is the electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Electricity production from green power sources is accomplished with an environmental profile superior to conventional power-generation technologies. The production process does not produce any anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. To understand green power, it is essential to understand RE as a whole (Boyle, 2004, pp: 35).

Many towns throughout the U.S. that manufactured numerous goods for our economy have been shipped overseas to China and the U.S has gone from a predominately manufacturing to a service sector economy. That has had marvellous consequences in the short-term where numerous residents of those towns who were employed at the factory that relocated are now unemployed, perhaps with a touch of despair. The solution, although, is not to despair, but to rebuild and find new and innovative, alternative jobs that cannot be shipped overseas to China. In particular, what the U.S. government should manage is become a leading manufacturer in green technology or industry like other countries have already done (Reel, 2006, pp: 211).

For example, the U.S is behind China "has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy—especially in solar power, and even in the United States. Chinese companies have currently performed a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by nearly half over the last year". President Obama and his administration clearly require to manage something about the imbalance here whereby the U.S is lagging behind China in solar manufacturing. For demonstration, whereas President Obama acknowledges that the U.S. manufacturing industry may require to be retooled and reorganized round green technology when he announced back in 2009 "that they (his Administration) would give $2.3 billion in tax credits to clean energy gear manufacturers", solar industry professionals especially are concerned that such credits are sufficient when competing contrary to the Chinese who currently ...