Commerce inquiry imperils solar industry, advocates say

WASHINGTON — In a decision that could dramatically undercut President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate goals, the Commerce Department said Monday it is investigating whether imports of solar panels from Southeast Asia are circumventing anti-dumping rules that limit imports from China. The Commerce Department decision “signals that the Biden administration’s talk of supporting solar energy is empty rhetoric,’' said Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, a clean-energy group. drove a stake through the heart of planned solar projects and choked off up to 80% of the solar panel supply to the U.S.,’' she said, adding that Biden ”must fix this now.’' The Commerce investigation follows a complaint by Auxin Solar, a small California-based manufacturer that said solar panels assembled in four Southeast Asian nations — Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam — are circumventing rules intended to block imports of solar cells and panels from China. “The more we rely on other countries to make things for us, the more vulnerable we become to supply chain disruptions like we have seen over the past two years,’' she said March 15, adding 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.’' Biden has set a goal to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030, and solar power is a key part of that agenda. The decision could result in retroactive tariffs of up to 240%, a possibility Hopper said would have an immediate and “chilling effect on the solar industry.’' Additional tariffs could cause the loss of 70,000 American jobs, including 11,000 manufacturing jobs, she said, and could result in a dramatic drop in solar installations and a corresponding increase in planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.