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).
Two studies released this week show another round of layoffs is already underway as evidence emerges that many workers are losing their jobs for the second time since shutdown measures took hold in March.
Hong Kong police have arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raided the publisher’s headquarters in the highest-profile use yet of the new security law Beijing imposed on the city in June.
TikTok's global chief information and security officer, Roland Cloutier, dismisses claims that the app is a security threat and provides user information to China.
Trump administration negotiators are back at the Capitol for last-ditch talks on vital COVID-19 rescue money. Democratic leaders summoned them for another try with the negotiations teetering on the brink of collapse.
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 schools can bring children back to classrooms for the start of the school year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday.
Media reports say 26 billboards are going up across Louisville, Kentucky, demanding that the police officers involved in Taylor’s death be arrested and charged. That’s one billboard for every year of the Black woman’s life.
The U.S. is imposing sanctions on pro-China officials in Hong Kong, including the leader of the government, for their alleged roles in squashing freedom in the former British colony.
he nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has rejected a request from the Trump campaign to either add an additional general election debate or move up the calendar for the contests.
The Trump administration has moved to raise application fees for various immigration processes, including asylum. Michelle N. Mendez, director of defending vulnerable programs at CLINIC, calls the move an attack on immigration.
