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.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Friday said the U.S. central bank was prepared to take action in the event of a global economic downturn. Powell, however, was tightlipped on whether the Fed would initiate another quarter-point interest rate cut as many investors had hoped.
Read Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's prepared remarks from his speech Friday at the Economic Symposium held in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Aug. 23, 2019.
The Democratic presidential candidate from Vermont drew praise from activists and advocates after revealing his $16.3 trillion plan to combat climate change.
Planned Parenthood is standing by its decision to withdraw from the federal government’s family planning program rather than comply with the Trump administration’s new rule barring referrals to doctors who provide abortions.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019.
President Trump on Wednesday reversed his position on lowering payroll taxes to bolster economic growth, telling reporters that “we don’t need it.” The reversal comes as a growing number of economists have warned that a recession in the U.S. is on the horizon.
The new rule, ending the so-called Flores agreement, will allow officials to hold families in detention indefinitely for the duration of immigration cases, which could be much longer than the current 20-day limit.
The minutes released from the July Federal Reserve meeting showed that the interest rate cut was a "mid-cycle adjustment to policy."
