President Donald Trump’s attempt to create U.S. jobs by taxing solar panel imports could backfire.
That’s according to the CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group, who says it’s domestic workers that will feel the pain.
“We have been the fastest growing form of new energy...and this is putting the brakes on that crazy growth,” Abigail Ross Hopper told Cheddar in an interview. “These are not people who are looking for what nationality the company they work for is. They just want to feed their families and pay their mortgages. And those are the people whose jobs are at risk.”
Earlier this week President Trump signed a law that would impose a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panel and sells, a move the administration says will encourage domestic manufacturing.
But the SEIA says the vast majority of the 260,000 Americans employed in the industry work in peripheral industries like installation. Ross Hopper says the bill will result in 23,000 layoffs this year and delay or cancel billions of dollars of investment in the sector.
She also says it might dissuade U.S. consumers from going green.
“Most [businesses and consumers] want to choose solar because it saves them money,” she said. “This decision changes that calculus.”
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/solar-power-in-america).
Cheddar News' Michelle Castillo spoke to former Kipp alumni and Kipp Affirm Middle School principal Dominique Mejia about the precautions it is taking to keep everyone healthy and why it was so important to return back to in-person instruction.
America’s employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a modest gain after two months of robust hiring at a time when the delta variant’s spread has discouraged some people from flying, shopping and eating out.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 340,000, a pandemic low, another sign that the job market is steadily rebounding from the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
A group of Democratic senators quietly put forth a bill that could reshape domestic manufacturing in the United States.
The nation’s most far-reaching curb on abortions has taken effect in Texas, with the Supreme Court silent so far on an emergency appeal to put the law on hold.
Cheddar asked its Gen Z and Millennial-aged Facebook and Instagram users about several topics including how they use social media, buying cryptocurrency, and the future job market.
Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two biggest benefit programs, remain under intense financial pressure with the retirement of millions of baby boomers and a devastating pandemic putting increased pressures on the two programs’ finances.
The speed limit for most of Paris is now 30 kilometers per hour (less than 19 miles per hour). The new rule takes effect Monday almost everywhere in the city except for a few wide avenues like the Champs-Elysees and the bypass circling the capital.
Cheddar's Chloe Aiello reports on Queens residents who mostly are voicing support for keeping the Open Streets program in New York City even after the pandemic.
Brazil, the country with the most freshwater resources in the world, has lost 15% of its surface water over the last three decades.
