Posted on 03/30/2022 5:36:38 PM PDT by Libloather
WASHINGTON - In a decision that could dramatically undercut President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate goals, the Commerce Department said Monday it is investigating whether imports of solar panels from Southeast Asia are circumventing anti-dumping rules that limit imports from China.
Clean energy leaders said the investigation - which could result in retroactive tariffs of up to 240% - would severely hinder the U.S. solar industry, leading to thousands of layoffs and imperiling up to 80% of planned solar projects in the U.S. Such an outcome would jeopardize one of Biden's top clean energy goals and run counter to his administration's push for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
The Commerce Department decision "signals that the Biden administration’s talk of supporting solar energy is empty rhetoric,'' said Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, a clean-energy group.
Zichal, who was White House energy adviser under President Barack Obama, called on Biden to reverse the decision immediately. “America’s solar workers and the clean energy community are watching and will remember,'' she said, calling implications of the investigation "apocalyptic'' for the industry.
“Overnight, the Commerce Department ....drove a stake through the heart of planned solar projects and choked off up to 80% of the solar panel supply to the U.S.,'' she said, adding that Biden ”must fix this now.''
The Commerce Department investigation follows a complaint by Auxin Solar, a small California-based manufacturer that said solar panels assembled in four Southeast Asian nations - Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam - are circumventing rules intended to block imports of solar cells and panels from China.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantoday.com ...
Unintended consequences Brandon! Midterms should be glorious.
Half of the solar cell silicon in the world is made by slave work by the Uighurs!
$345 million solar farm coming to the Town of Byron in Genesee County
What a cluster.
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