U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss collusion claims against U.S. oil companies and OPEC and its impact on American workers. He also discussed Chinese companies' efforts to slow the growth of the American solar industry and provided an update on the Nippon Steel acquisition of U.S. Steel.
Senator Brown began the conversation by discussing the recent collusion claims against several U.S. oil companies and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). He talked about the request from a group of U.S. House lawmakers, himself included, asking for the U.S. Department of Justice to probe allegations of antitrust behavior between OPEC and several leading U.S. oil companies. These antitrust behaviors, what Brown calls collusion, state that the two parties worked together to limit oil supply and drive up costs to the American consumer.
Several foreign companies have become interested parties in the growing American solar industry. Senator Brown talked about the efforts by Chinese companies to negatively impact American solar producers. This has been an ongoing issue with different industries over the years, and now Chinese companies are dumping subpar solar products in America, he said.
Finally, Senator Brown discussed Nippon Steel’s efforts to acquire U.S. Steel. While there haven’t been many updates recently, there are ongoing efforts to prevent the acquisition from happening. He talked about the concerns he has if the Japanese steel company were to acquire U.S. Steel and how this would impact the efforts by unions like the United Steelworkers to bring back the American Steel industry.
Listen to the show above to hear more from Senator Brown.