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).
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.
Minnesota authorities say the police officer who knelt on George Floyd has been arrested
Stock indexes edged mostly higher in afternoon trading Friday after President Donald Trump outlined several actions in response to China eroding the autonomy of Hong Kong, but did not mention any moves to upend a trade pact struck with Beijing earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has announced that the U.S. will be terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization.
Some upstate New York business owners who made plans to reopen Friday remain closed amid last-minute confusion over whether their region indeed has the OK to move forward
Twitter has added a warning to one of President Donald Trump's tweets about protests in Minneapolis, saying it violated the platform's rules about “glorifying violence."
Cheering protesters torched a Minneapolis police station that the department abandoned as three days of violent protests spread to nearby St. Paul and angry demonstrations flared across the U.S over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck.
U.S. consumer spending plunged by a record-shattering 13.6% in April as the viral pandemic shuttered businesses, forced millions of layoffs and sent the economy into a deep recession.
Wall Street’s rally ran out of fuel in the last hour of trading on Thursday, and the market fell to its first loss in four days amid worries about rising U.S.-China tensions.
President Donald Trump is escalating his war on social media companies, preparing to sign an executive order Thursday challenging the liability protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet.
