House committee advances resolution to cancel Biden’s solar emergency

The House Ways and Means Committee advanced a resolution to cancel President Joe Biden ‘s emergency solar proclamation, which was done to protect Asian solar product imports from tariffs through next summer.

The bipartisan vote shows support for the expansion of tariffs on solar cell and module imports from four Asian countries, many of which the Commerce Department found in December to be circumventing existing duties on Chinese solar imports but are being protected from tariffs under Biden’s order.

THE STAKES JUST GOT HIGHER FOR BIDEN’S SOLAR EFFORTS

“This resolution is simply about enforcement,” said Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL), who co-sponsored the resolution.

The bipartisan Congressional Review Act resolution, introduced by Reps. Dan Kildee (D-MI) and Bill Posey (R-FL) in January, pits domestic solar manufacturing interests against the downstream part of the solar sector, including project developers who import cheaper products to construct solar arrays.

Biden got ahead of the Commerce Department’s investigation last June when he declared a solar emergency to protect imports from expanded tariffs in order to keep products flowing without disruption. He justified the measure by saying it would lower energy prices and fight climate change.

Leading renewable energy lobbies, including the Solar Energy Industries Association, lobbied hard against an expansion of tariffs. Imports from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, the four countries protected by Biden’s declaration, have accounted for some 80% of all solar cell and module imports.

The White House said the emergency action was taken “to ensure that we have the reliable supply of components that deployers need to construct grid-strengthening clean energy projects” while manufacturing of solar products domestically grows to scale.

Domestic manufacturers of cells and modules lobbied for the resolution’s passage after Commerce published its preliminary findings in December, arguing that Biden’s solar emergency is enabling Chinese-based manufacturers operating in the four Asian countries to violate U.S. antidumping laws to their detriment.

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Democrats who opposed the resolution Wednesday argued the resolution would disrupt deployment of solar technologies that were supercharged by the Inflation Reduction Act’s subsidies for renewable energy.

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) said passage of the resolution would come at the cost of U.S. jobs and “kneecap that effort right out of the gate,” referring to the new law’s subsidies.