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).
MindMed CEO J.R. Rahn spoke to Cheddar about the psychedelic mental health therapy company taking the big step forward going public on the Nasdaq exchange.
President Joe Biden spent his first 100 days in office encouraging Americans to mask up and stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19.
U.S. health officials say fully vaccinated Americans don't need to wear masks outdoors anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers.
Car culture in the U.S. spurred a parking boom since the early 1900s. As a result, cities are chock full of parking lots and garages. Cheddar explains why this happened and the often unseen damage it's doing to our urban centers.
Jill and Carlo talk about optimism on the pandemic and economy, a big demographic shift that will have implications for the midterms, Apple rolling out its new privacy tool, and the Oscars ratings.
The first numbers from the 2020 census are out and they show Republican-controlled Southern and Western states gaining congressional seats.
While much of the world remains hunkered down, the band Six60 has been playing to huge crowds in New Zealand, where social distancing isn’t required after the nation stamped out the coronavirus.
The White House says the U.S. will begin sharing its entire stock of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines with the world once it clears federal safety reviews.
Even before COVID, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) was coming into vogue among left-leaning economists and policy-makers. But what is it? And what are the arguments for and against it?
Officials say the European Union is finalizing plans to allow tourists from the United States to travel to the 27-nation bloc this summer.
