E&E Legal’s Fact Sheets are aimed and countering the deception and spin spewing forth from the Biden Administration and its allies regarding their economy-killing energy policies.  China’s influence over all aspects of our government, and in particular our energy policy, is a threat to the very existence of our country.  Click here for a pdf version. 

E&E Legal Fact Sheet II: Chinese Solar Panels

TOPLINE

  • American Solar Incentives and Subsidy Programs Run Headlong into China Problems
  • Left-Wing Cries Foul over Imperiled Solar Push after China Investigation Announced
  • The Biden Administration is once again confronted with a choice: between its “green” agenda dependent on China – with slave labor, dangerous and unclean manufacturing, and dishonest trade practices effectively subsidized by American government programs – or American energy independence. To date, it has continuously favored China and the “green” agenda.
  • The Biden Administration continues to fight to keep domestic natural gas locked in the ground while converting our electric grid to dependence on China.

RECENT HEADLINES

BACKGROUND

  •  As is the case with most “green” energy sources, solar panels and solar panel components are mainly manufactured and produced in China. 
  • Chinese Solar panels (and components) production has been linked to forced labor, environmentally taxing manufacturing practices, and CCP price manipulation in order to dominate worldwide production. 
  • State and federal programs subsidizing (or, in some circumstances, essentially mandating) the use of solar panel at residential and industrial levels, then, heavily subsidize these Chinese practices. 
  • In February, President Biden renewed but relaxed the Trump tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels and components, largely siding with advocates for his “green” agenda (which seeks cheaper solar panels from China) over the recommendation of the ITC (which recommended renewing on the merits). 
  • At the end of March, the Department of Commerce announced an investigation into allegations that China was circumventing the tariffs via operations in Southeast Asian countries. 
  • The investigation has been decried by liberals because it has frozen the solar import markets and driven up costs for the march toward solar (which is increasingly mandated by Biden regulations). 

SUMMARY

 Under Obama, the U.S. started a tariff regime on Chinese solar panels. President Trump imposed even wider-ranging tariffs on Chinese-manufactured solar panels in the face of Chinese price manipulation and dumping on the world market and the use of dirty coal and suspected forced labor in production.  In February, President Biden renewed but somewhat relaxed the tariffs on Chinese solar panels and components, unilaterally rejecting the recommendation of the International Trade Commission (and purportedly, the Department of Commerce staff) to keep the tariffs in place at full force—essentially choosing expansion of solar energy in the U.S.over holding China to account.

In March, the Department of Commerce initiated an investigation into the manufacture of solar panels in other Asian countries that allegedly were used by the Chinese to circumvent the tariffs. This had the immediate effect of freezing those markets since the investigation could result in tariffs imposed retroactively to the first day of the investigation. Since liberal groups and others have decried the investigation as rising prices of solar panels and components from China and Southeast Asia imperil their green agenda. The New York Times re-upped the pressure in a news article this weekend.

The use of solar panels both in large-scale projects and on the consumer level is widely encouraged and subsidized at both the state and federal levels. But Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo admitted last month that “at least 95%of the market for the cells that go into solar panels is estimated to have components that were produced in China.” While the U.S. has been on a strong energy footing when factoring in fossil fuels, the increasingly frenzied push by the Biden Administration toward solar, wind, and electric battery-powered life means increased dependence on China forming, components, and imported products. Increased regulations are forcing electricity generators to increasingly incorporate solar into the grid, and thus our grid will increasingly rely on China, consequences be damned. Only leaders this stupid(or beholden to the left’s extreme green agenda) would be fighting to keep domestic natural gas locked in the ground while converting our electric grid to dependence on China.

And now, the Biden administration is publicly debating whether to expand or reduce tariffs on other Chinese products in yet another flailing attempt to drive down inflation it created before the midterms–all while rewarding China’s abhorrent behavior in the three years since the tariffs were levied. As Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan was quoted on the subject: “Lifting tariffs on so-called non-strategic goods from China would be a major mistake, doing nothing to ease inflationary pressures on American consumers and rewarding a human-rights-abusing, communist government for years of cheating American workers and stealing jobs.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

A Commerce Department investigation could imperil the solar industry, advocates say 

U.S. bans imports of some Chinese Solar Materials Tied to Use of Forced Labor

China Helped Make Solar Power Cheap through Subsidies, and Allegedly, Forced Labor

Visualizing China’s Dominance in Clean Energy Metals  

Homeowners Guide to the Federal Tax Credit for Solar Photovoltaics

Solar Incentives by State

‘Inflection point.’ Biden faces 2 tests that could remake solar (includes info on Congressional letters on tariff decision)

Argument: The United States Can’t Afford the Brutal Price of Chinese Solar Panels 

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