The Rump’s Solar Attack

Donald Trump’s big chance to cripple solar

Mark Jaffe, July 7, 2017 (Denver Post)

“…[Withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord didn’t hurt the U.S. carbon-reduction and renewable-energy efforts as much as what this administration could do about a petition from two bankrupt solar-panel manufacturers...[Now before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), it cites an obscure and rarely used section of trade law that would give the president power to impose sweeping tariffs on imported solar cells. Tariffs that could double the cost of a panel…[The Rump] has been spoiling to show how tough he is on trade…[The proposed worldwide tariff on solar panels would cut new solar installations in half between 2018 and 2022 and] result in the loss of 88,000 jobs nationally, about a third of all the jobs in the solar sector…[Even without the Paris accord, the reduction of the nation’s greenhouse gases — primarily carbon dioxide — linked to climate change will continue…[but The Rump might] see this as a way to help the coal-mining industry…If the 40-cent tariff was added to [solar’s] floor price, it would raise the cost of solar cells to $1.18 a watt, and new solar installation would crater [from a [projected 72.5 gigawatts] to 25 gigawatts between 2018 and 2022…” click here for more

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