For Months, Rosen Has Led the Effort to Stop the Threat of Job-Killing Solar Tariffs and Bolster Domestic Solar Manufacturing
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) applauded news that the Biden Administration is heeding her call to address the threat of additional solar tariffs posed by the Commerce Department’s industry-crushing investigation. The Biden Administration announced today that they will declare a two-year solar tariff suspension window while also invoking the Defense Production Act to boost U.S. solar manufacturing.
“I’ve been leading the fight in the Senate against the threat of additional job-killing solar tariffs, and I’m glad the Biden Administration is now taking concrete action in response to my efforts with a bipartisan group of colleagues sounding the alarm about this issue,” said Senator Rosen. “The risk of additional tariffs on imported solar panels would have been devastating for American solar projects, the hundreds of thousands of jobs they support, and our nation’s clean energy and climate goals. The Administration’s announcement is a positive step that will save American solar jobs and invest in our own long-term domestic solar manufacturing capabilities.”
Senator Rosen has been leading the fight to support American solar energy from the threat of job-killing tariffs and to boost domestic solar manufacturing. In March, Rosen spearheaded a bipartisan group of a dozen senators in urging Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to carefully assess the validity of the filed petition to investigate and expand solar tariffs.
Following the news that the Commerce Department had launched the investigation, Senator Rosen pressed Secretary Raimondo about expediting this investigation at an oversight hearing, and later led a bipartisan group of 21 colleagues in a letter to President Biden urging him to expedite and bring the investigation to a swift conclusion. As a follow-up to her letter, Rosen led a group of senators in a call with White House officials to stress the damaging impact of the investigation on solar projects and jobs in their states. In May, Senator Rosen also led a group of colleagues in speaking on the Senate floor about the negative consequences of the Commerce Department’s misguided investigation.
Senator Rosen introduced the Protecting American Solar Jobs and Lowering Costs Act in February. This bipartisan legislation, introduced with Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), would repeal the Section 201 tariffs on solar panels and create a new program through the Department of Energy to increase domestic production and manufacturing of solar panels.
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