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).
The Transportation Department on Tuesday finalized guidance requiring airlines to maintain a minimum level of service to be eligible for some $50 billion in federal aid that was included in the $2 trillion relief package that President Trump signed March 2
The Navy's acting secretary has been forced to apologize after a profanity-laden broadside in which he called the fired commander of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt "too naive or too stupid.”
Andy Card, the White House chief of staff who famously informed President George W. Bush of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, offered some pointers on how to handle a national crisis.
President Donald Trump on Monday disputed the veracity of a federal survey that found hospitals faced severe shortages of coronavirus test supplies, questioning whether its conclusions were skewed by politics.
Wisconsin’s presidential primary election will proceed Tuesday under an order from the state Supreme Court that came just hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to postpone voting as part of a last-ditch effort amid growing fears over the coronavirus.
The city's Mayor Shirley Sessions, who called the governor's decision "reckless," told Cheddar Monday that she vows to fight back against this exception to his mandate.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy delivered a message of cautious optimism on Monday while relaying the latest COVID-19 data gathered by the state.
Announcing 599 deaths in the last 24 hours, Cuomo called the fatality number “effectively flat for two days,” which he said hints at a possible flattening of New York’s curve, along with fewer hospital and ICU admissions
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to the intensive care unit of a London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened Monday, just a day after he was admitted for what were said to be routine tests.
A look at the provisions for student loans in the recently passed CARES Act.
