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).
Democrats who were involved in the questioning during the House Financial Services Committee hearing on the GameStop stock controversy spoke to Cheddar about what they felt they learned.
Southern U.S. cities slammed by winter storms that left millions without power for days have traded one crisis for another.
President Joe Biden toured a state-of-the-art coronavirus vaccine plant Friday as extreme winter weather across broad swaths of the U.S. handed his vaccination campaign its first major setback.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
New York State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes believes 2021 is the year that the Empire State will get marijuana legalization done.
Cheddar has pulled together a rough timeline of the GameStop tale, from its inauspicious beginnings to becoming one of the biggest stories out of Wall Street since the crash of the housing market.
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Uber drivers should be classed as “workers” and not self-employed.
Power was restored to more homes and businesses in Texas after a deadly blast of winter this week overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold.
Cheddar looks at the players in the GameStop stock saga taking part in the House Committee on Financial Services hearing.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week to 861,000, evidence that layoffs remain painfully high despite a steady drop in the number of confirmed viral infections.
