Collin Anderson of the Washington Free Beacon reports on a bizarre piece of spin from the Biden administration.
President Joe Biden’s Energy Department counts as a diversity “ambassador” the head of a trade group that represents Chinese solar companies, including one that allegedly accepted slave laborers from the communist nation’s government.
The Energy Department on its website lists Solar Energy Industries Association president and CEO Abby Hopper as one of its “Equity in Energy” ambassadors. The initiative, hosted under the department’s “economic impact and diversity” office, “is designed to expand the inclusion and participation of individuals in underserved communities, such as minorities, women, veterans, and formerly incarcerated persons, in all the programs of the Department of Energy.”
Hopper’s association, however, includes members that are not exactly known for celebrating minorities. China’s top solar companies, including JinkoSolar, are Solar Energy Industries Association members. Consulting firm Horizon Advisory last year identified JinkoSolar as one of many Chinese solar giants that appear to have partnered with the communist nation’s government to receive slave laborers in Xinjiang, where more than one million Uyghur Muslims are held in concentration camps. JinkoSolar, in one case, received state subsidies for employing dozens of what the Chinese government called “poor workers in southern Xinjiang,” according to the report.
The association has distanced itself from its members’ work in Xinjiang by citing its “Solar Industry Forced Labor Prevention Pledge,” which calls on signatories to “commit to helping ensure that the solar supply chain is free of forced labor.” JinkoSolar signed the pledge by February 2021, despite its Xinjiang subsidiary allegedly using forced labor. Still, the company remains a Solar Energy Industries Association member and is listed on the association’s most recent forced labor prevention pledge.
Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of energy advocacy group Power the Future, hammered Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm for Hopper’s status as a department ambassador.
