To boost solar, Biden looks the other way on potential Chinese trade violations
Facing paralysis of the U.S. solar industry, President Joe Biden has ordered that potential trade violations by Chinese solar panel manufacturers go unpunished
WASHINGTON — Facing paralysis of the U.S. solar industry, President Joe Biden has ordered that potential trade violations by Chinese solar panel manufacturers go unpunished for the next two years, sidestepping a law Congress passed to protect U.S. workers.
Biden’s move Monday to prohibit new tariffs on the solar panels also took the teeth out of an investigation by the Commerce Department that was required by law. The Biden administration had previously tried to avoid interference in what’s supposed to be an independent, quasi-judicial process.
The investigation will go on uninterrupted, the Commerce Department said Monday. But nobody will be punished.
Printed solar panels tested to take Tesla on 9,400-mile journeyApril 20, 202200:41Senior Biden administration officials described the move to suspend the tariffs as creating a “bridge” — temporarily allowing cheap foreign solar panels to flood into the U.S. to speed the transition to clean energy, while using those two years to ramp up a fledgling U.S. solar manufacturing industry.
To achieve it, Biden must declare an emergency to justify sidestepping the tariff law.
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