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).
A new bill in New Jersey, if passed through the state legislature, would immediately release anyone in jail for non-violent marijuana crimes and expunge their records. Jake Hudnut, chief prosecutor for Jersey City, calls it the most progressive social justice bill in the nation.
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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to reduced charges Friday morning and agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller's investigation.
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With claims that the official Puerto Rico death toll was inflated to make him look bad, the president "just put a bullet in Rick Scott's senate campaign," said Rick Wilson, GOP consultant and author of "Everything Trump Touches Dies." The Floridian Governor had worked hard to gain the support of Puerto Ricans in his state.
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Diana Henriques, financial journalist and author, said that a decade after the financial crisis, the country is not even close to prepared for another economic collapse of similar magnitude or whatever could follow.
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The actress-turned-activist, and Democratic candidate for New York Governor, said that she isn't worried about trailing incumbent Andrew Cuomo, because polls don't capture the progressive movement that could bring voters to the polls for the primaries this Thursday.
Something different looms over this year's annual Apple keynote: an escalating trade war with China, a country on which the company is so dependent. What will that mean for the consumer? Plus, could there be some surprises in store at Wednesday's event?
