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).
Unprecedented pressure from the coronavirus pandemic has forced the closure of roughly 35 percent of food pantries in New York City, just as the number of residents facing food insecurity has surged by about 800,000 to two million.
To restaurants and bars struggling to stay open for food delivery and pick-up, the ability to add high-margin cocktails and mixed drinks to the check has provided a crucial revenue stream.
Nokomis Fairbanks started tattooing professionally three years ago and recently set up shop at Oracle Tattoo Guild in Lexington, Kentucky. Today, she has no idea when she will be able to pick up her needle again.
Wall Street rallied for its biggest gain in a week as investors find more reasons to hope that the worst of the economic plunge due to the coronavirus pandemic may have passed.
The Justice Department says it's dropping its criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Louis DeJoy, a North Carolina businessman and Trump donor, has been tapped to replace outgoing Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan, an Obama appointee.
The Trump administration has shelved a set of detailed documents created by the nation’s top disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places during the still-raging pandemic.
Stocks climbed in early trading on Wall Street Thursday as reports suggested that even though the economy is still suffering severely, the pace of pain may be decelerating.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed course on plans to wind down his COVID-19 task force, attempting to balance his enthusiasm for “reopening” the country with rising infection rates in parts of the nation.
A late-day slide left stocks mostly lower after a wobbly day of trading, but major technology companies managed to hold on to their gains.
