By Tom Kuhn & Heather Zichal , Abigail Ross Hopper
Over the last six months, the U.S. solar supply chain has been subject to not one, but two, attacks perpetrated by companies attempting to leverage trade laws for their own self-interest when those laws were meant to protect the public interest. These companies want the U.S. Department of Commerce to apply substantial tariffs to solar modules imported from select Asian countries. These modules are critical inputs to the execution of solar projects installed in the U.S. today by American companies.
Under our trade laws, any company doing business in the United States can allege that any or all other companies are violating our trade laws and the Department of Commerce must take the allegation seriously. Commerce does not, however, have to investigate the claim. That discretion exists to guard against abuse of the complaint-based system. It exists to keep one company from improperly gaming the system. The American solar industry is hoping that the Department recognizes and exercises its discretion today to keep one company from breaking the supply chain that makes possible solar energy in America and all the jobs and environmental public benefits it provides.
Make no mistake, if the complainant is successful, solar energy will become as much as two to three times more expensive than it was just one year ago, setting back our efforts to achieve independence, putting hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs at risk along with the Biden administration’s renewable energy goals. If these tariffs are applied, we expect that far less solar generation will be installed in the U.S. during the four years of the Biden administration as compared to previous administrations.
