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).
Kayleigh McEnany confirms to Cheddar's J.D. Durkin that Michael Cohen remains as Deputy Finance Chair of the RNC, despite being under criminal investigation. "We'll take it step by step, day by day," she says.
A day after President Trump canceled the North Korea summit, Kim Jong-un said he is still willing to sit down with the U.S. president "at any time." This outcome is what "good negotiating looks like," says Kayleigh McEnany, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
Though President Trump abruptly canceled his planned meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, there's still a possibility the summit could take place in the future if the two sides can tamp down their antagonism and agree to a framework for denuclearization.
Frank Zaccanelli, a former owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, says the NFL's decision to adopt a new policy on the national anthem without consulting the NFL Players Association was, "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."
Tea Party Republicans and President Trump ran campaigns on a platform of being the Washington outsiders needed to save the country. Now the Democrats will have their own opportunity in the 2018 midterms.
Mark Zuckerberg Testifies Before EU Parliament
The Democratic Congressman from Texas says state and local officials should do more to limit the places people can carry guns, not introduce more guns into schools. "Like so many other teachers, they didn't sign up to be soldiers or police officers," says Castro.
European lawmakers aggressively questioned Facebook's CEO on Tuesday, indicating they may consider further restricting the social media company's unchecked growth and regulating its business practices.
Align Technology, which makes Invisalign orthodontics, opened its first manufacturing plant in China in 2017 and expects to have a "good, contained business" there by the end of the year, despite a wider reassessment of U.S.-China trade relations, says Joe Hogan, the CEO of Align Technology.
The streaming platform will give the former president and first lady a global platform to focus on issues important to them. But they need to be mindful of making that content available to communities that don't have access to high-speed internet or Netflix, says Alexander Heffner, the host of "The Open Mind" on PBS.
