Congress Mounts Efforts to Revive Solar Tariffs

In a bipartisan effort, Republicans and some Democrats in Congress are attempting to overturn President Biden's two-year suspension of new tariffs on solar panels produced in Asia. The move, backed by China trade hardliners, could stall major solar projects and hinder the United States' decarbonization objectives.

The lawmakers are utilizing the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress 60 legislative days to examine and possibly reverse significant regulations implemented by federal agencies. To pass a CRA resolution reversing a regulation, a simple majority is needed in both chambers and the president's signature.

A CRA resolution has been introduced in both chambers to annul Biden's two-year suspension of new tariffs on solar products from manufacturers in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. If the resolution passes in both the House and Senate, it will land on Biden's desk, where he is likely to veto it. The resolution may only serve as campaign material for Republicans and a few Democrats in vulnerable districts unless both chambers can gather a two-thirds supermajority to override the president's veto.

The CRA resolution has garnered support from politicians across party lines, including those from states with solar manufacturing or those looking to develop solar manufacturing.

Republicans, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), have been vocal in their opposition to Biden's tariff suspension. Democrats, on the other hand, are split on the issue, with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in favor of the resolution, while Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) leads the opposition. Other Democrats have yet to decide their stance.

The utility-scale solar industry is on high alert, with Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, arguing that the resolution is "unnecessary, unproductive, and hurts our economy." Hopper contends that the fast-growing US solar industry relies on affordable imported solar panels until domestic manufacturing sources are established.

Another barrier to solar panel imports has been the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA), which presumes goods from Xinjiang are produced with forced labor, with an emphasis on polysilicon, the panels' core material.    The bulk of China's polysilicon production is in the Uyghur region and produced under condition of slavery, according to governement, NGO, and academic sources.

In October, Reuters reported U.S. Customs and Border Protection had detained over 1,000 shipments of solar energy equipment under UFLPA.  By February, Customs said it had released 374, or more than a quarter of 1,433 electronics shipments it had detained under UFLPA. It would not specify how many of those were solar products.