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 Iowa Senator made the characterization to Cheddar after his Republican colleagues Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted the president's long-awaited and delayed briefing on the killing.
The officials, citing U.S. intelligence, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. They said they had no certain knowledge of Iranian intent. But they said it could very well have been a mistake, and that the airliner was mistaken for a threat.
Britain's royal family scrambled Thursday to contain the fallout from the surprise announcement by Prince Harry and Meghan that they plan “to step back” from royal duties, a shift that ignited media outrage and public unease in the U.K.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, January 9, 2020.
The law that became a key roadblock to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline extension may be getting an overhaul, to the benefit of the oil and gas industry.
Adult-use cannabis legalization remains a priority for New York, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has put social justice-focused legalization on his 2020 to-do list.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a House vote for Thursday on limiting President Donald Trump's ability to take military action against Iran as Democratic criticism of the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general intensified.
Trump said the U.S. will impose new sanctions on Iran in his first public remarks since Iranian missiles hit two military bases in Iraq that house American troops.
Damien Kieran, Twitter’s Global Data Protection Officer, spoke to Cheddar about how his team is ensuring compliance with data protection laws around the world.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, January 8, 2020.
