United States House passes legislation to repeal solar tariff moratorium

• The US House of Representatives on Friday voted to approve a resolution that would repeal a two-year moratorium on tariffs on solar panels and cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand as well as Vietnam.

The moratorium was introduced by United States president Joe Biden last year to make sure an adequate supply of solar equipment while domestic production scales up. This step followed the launch of an examination by the United States Department of Commerce to determine whether solar imports from these four Southeast Asian countries are preventing tariffs on Chinese cells and modules.

Clean power organisations on Friday hit at the House's flow of the resolution as well as called on the Senate to vote against the legislation.

According to Abigail Ross Hopper, president and also chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the "legislation will impose USD 1 billion in retroactive tariffs and also cause 30,000 Americans to shed their jobs this year."

"Numerous new solar projects have actually already been postponed as a result of a scarcity of photovoltaic or pv panels, and this resolution only aggravates the trouble, putting tens of countless good-paying jobs at risk as well as seriously undermining the success of the individual retirement account also as scientists' cautions regarding the influences of international environment adjustment are progressively alarming," commented Gregory Wetstone, president and president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).

"A lot of the nation's largest trade unions have actually joined clean power firms in opposing this legislation, which would certainly lead to American projects being delayed or cancelled, causing bankruptcies, job loss, as well as raised energy costs," claimed American Clean Power Association (ACP) chief executive Jason Grumet.

The White House recently stated that the president would veto the resolution if the Congress were to pass it.