A bipartisan quartet of senators, led by two Democrats from the critical swing state of Georgia, are asking President Biden to toughen up tariffs on Chinese solar panels or face a glutted market just as the president’s clean-energy tax credits hit the market.
“We must not allow China to destroy U.S. manufacturing and control this strategic energy sector,” reads a new letter to Mr. Biden that was spearheaded by Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia and co-signed by Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat in a tough re-election fight, as well as Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, and Senator Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia. “We urge you to increase and enforce tariffs on these Chinese solar products that threaten U.S. economic and energy security.”
The issue goes to the core of one of Mr. Biden’s arguments for re-election: that his economic policies have begun transforming the U.S. energy economy while combating climate change. Georgia has been the beneficiary of generous tax policies that have sparked massive investments in new solar panel and electric vehicle battery plants.
But Chinese government policies have kept pace with even bigger industry subsidies, driving down the cost of Chinese solar panels and threatening the American industry in its infancy, a potential political threat to Mr. Biden as he makes his re-election bid.
Biden administration officials acknowledged receiving the letter. Heather Barmore, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative, responded that trade officials are “in conversation with our colleagues on Capitol Hill on these critical issues.”
The solar industry has been split over how tough tariffs should be on solar panel components from China and Chinese subsidiaries in other countries. Some panel manufacturers have warned that U.S. plants announced by the industry and touted by Mr. Biden could be delayed or shelved because of the Chinese competition. But companies that use the cheap imported components from China and its subsidiaries elsewhere have been more cautious.
The senators, no doubt considering their own political futures, are putting their fingers on the scale.
“China’s aggressive subsidies for its own solar manufacturing industry demonstrate its intent to control the industry globally,” they wrote. “By 2026, China will have enough capacity to meet annual global demand for the next ten years. This capacity is an existential threat to the U.S. solar industry and American energy security.”
