Letter Follows Decision by Department of Commerce to Investigate Solar Circumvention Petition, Threatening Thousands of U.S. Clean Energy Jobs and Higher Costs for Consumers
WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), led a bipartisan group of 19 colleagues in a letter urging President Joe Biden to expedite and bring to a swift conclusion the Administration’s investigation into solar panels and cells imported from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia and requesting a meeting to discuss this issue. This investigation could expand harmful, job-killing tariffs on solar imports, raising costs for consumers, and has already caused widespread cancellations and delays in the U.S. solar industry.
Bloomberg: Senators Plead With Biden for Quick End to Solar-Trade Probe
By Jennifer A Dlouhy
Key Points:
- The investigation into whether Chinese companies are circumventing decade-old tariffs by assembling solar cells and modules in Southeast Asia “will severely harm” American businesses and workers “as long as it continues,” the 22 senators said in a letter to Biden.
- The group, led by Democrats Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, asked the Biden administration to quickly make a preliminary determination on the matter, rather than waiting until an Aug. 30 deadline to issue its initial findings.
- New tariffs could mean “massive price hikes for U.S. utility customers,” delays in deploying clean energy and halted projects, the senators said.
The Washington Post: More than 20 senators urge Biden administration to expedite solar tariff probe
By Maxine Joselow
Key Points:
- A bipartisan group of 22 senators on Monday sent a letter to President Biden urging him to swiftly advance a probe from the Commerce Department into solar modules from four Southeast Asian nations, saying the investigation is having adverse effects on business.
- “Initiation of this investigation is already causing massive disruption in the solar industry, and it will severely harm American solar businesses and workers and increase costs for American families as long as it continues,” the senators wrote.
The Hill: Senators urge Biden to wrap up solar power probe
By Zack Budryk
Key Points:
- In a letter released Monday, led by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), senators note projections by the solar industry that the investigation could cost jobs as well as reduce U.S. solar capacity.
- “We strongly urge your administration to swiftly review the case and make an expedited preliminary determination. Such a determination should carefully consider the significant policy ramifications and reject the petitioner’s request for retroactivity,”…the Monday letter states.
- Rosen and other senators have repeatedly raised concerns about the probe’s economic impact, as well as its potential detriment to the Biden administration’s own renewable energy targets.
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