The Department of Energy Will Chat Today About Green Power Markets

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

October 20, 2011 | 12:29 PM

Peter Parks / AFP/Getty Images

A Chinese worker lifts a solar panel in the Yingli Solar factory, one of the world's largest manufacturers of the equipment.

As the now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra plans to auction off its file cabinets and desk chairs, seven other U.S. solar panel manufacturers have filed an unfair trade case against China. The case says the Chinese have used several illegal practices to gain an advantage in the American market, including dumping the panels at prices below their manufacturing costs, and using government subsidies to gain an edge in the U.S.
This all comes at a time when Republicans have leveled heavy criticism against the Obama Administration for allowing the Department of Energy to loan millions of dollars to the now-defunct Solyndra. But you readers, and energy buffs out there, will have the chance to talk directly with the DOE today during a live internet chat with the Energy Secretary’s senior advisor Richard Kaufman. Kaufman, the former CEO of Good Energies Inc., will take your questions on clean energy markets. The discussion begins at 2:00 pm.