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).
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s attempts to ban TikTok, the latest legal defeat for the administration as it tries to wrest the popular app from its Chinese owners.
Can President Trump pardon himself? Cheddar takes a look into the controversial issue as his administration approaches its end.
The U.S. House of Representatives made history on Friday, after voting to pass a sweeping cannabis decriminalization and social equity bill.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler debated her Democratic opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, Sunday night, while challenger Jon Ossoff debated an empty podium when incumbent Sen. David Perdue refused to debate ahead of the January Senate runoffs in Georgia.
Joe LaVorgna, the chief economist for the White House National Economic Council, talked to Cheddar about the economy and the recently released jobs report'.
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.
Biden stopped just short Thursday of the nationwide mandate he’s pushed before to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Three former presidents say they’d be willing to publicly take a coronavirus vaccine, once one becomes available, to encourage all Americans to get inoculated against a disease that has already killed more than 273,000 people nationwide.
The U.S. has recorded over 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, obliterating the record set last spring.
The Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed the nomination of Christopher Waller for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, placing another of President Donald Trump’s picks on the Fed’s influential board after a string of high-profile rejections.
