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).
Voting in the 2020 election kicks off today, exactly nine months before Election Day, as Iowans gather at more than 1,600 caucus sites to pick their favorite candidate.
Councilman Ritchie Torres told Cheddar that cashless businesses might uphold institutionalized racism and discriminate against low-income people who are unbanked or underbanked.
Since the 1970s, Iowa has been the home of the first caucus, but it hasn't always selected the eventual nominees for each political party.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, February 3, 2020.
The Senate approved a resolution that will allow a final impeachment vote on Wednesday, after both the Iowa caucuses and the State of the Union address.
Senators voted against calling more witnesses today, after Senator Mitch McConnell called a quorum call, during which McConnell and his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer were seen huddling on the floor of the senate, likely discussing how to proceed.
Senators will get four hours of debate Friday before voting on whether to call witnesses and introduce documents — a vote expected to fail.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, January 31, 2020.
While the sitting president faces charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, his two predecessors are also facing a reckoning in the Guantánamo Bay military tribunal. President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial and the Guantánamo Bay tribunal both hinge in large part on the same unresolved issue: how much information can the executive withhold in the name of national security?
Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters during the break that Republicans have the ”momentum” to move to end the trial tomorrow without witnesses.
