On Tuesday, three Senate Democrats joined Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in calling for higher tariffs on solar panel parts imported from China.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Sen. Rubio are particularly interested in modules used in panel production, He called on President Biden to raise tariffs on cells and wafers. Chinese products are squeezing the U.S. solar power industry.
The senators cited a 2023 study showing that Chinese-made panels cost 15 cents per watt, less than half the price of U.S.-made panels.
“By 2026, China will have sufficient capacity to meet the world’s annual demand for the next decade,” the Quartet writes. “This capability poses an existential threat to the U.S. solar industry and to U.S. energy security.”
The Biden administration has set ambitious goals for accelerating the development and deployment of renewable energy, particularly domestically, and the White House has presented the transition as a major job creator. However, many of the existing supply chains for solar power are controlled by China or subsidiaries of Chinese companies.
Last year, Mr. Biden suspended tariffs on solar imports for two years, resulting in the passage of a bipartisan Congressional Review Act resolution to end the moratorium, which the president vetoed. Brown was among those who voted in favor of the resolution.
Georgia in particular has experienced a solar manufacturing boom under the Biden administration, and the solar tax credit Ossoff created was part of the Anti-Inflation Act.
Recent polls show that despite Biden’s victory in the state in 2020, he is trailing former President Trump, who is seen as a likely challenger in the November election. It was a time when the White House was touting Biden’s economic policies as part of its re-election message.
The letter also puts the senators at odds with a coalition of Democrats in the western United States. Solar power is a major industry in the state, and industry groups say it cannot withstand tariff enforcement.
In 2022, the Ministry of Commerce announced that it would investigate eight Southeast Asian solar panel component manufacturers for allegedly evading Chinese tariffs, and ultimately determined that five of them had engaged in evasion.
The solar energy industry vigorously opposed the study, as did Western Democrats led by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who said the study would “directly impact our nation’s solar economy.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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