Senate approves measure to cancel Biden’s solar tariff pause, teeing up third veto

Senators passed a measure Wednesday to invalidate the emergency declaration President Joe Biden declared last summer to temporarily protect Asian solar energy imports from anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

The 56-41 bipartisan vote gives full approval to the resolution after House lawmakers passed it on Friday and tees up the latest Biden veto of a measure seeking to nullify one of his administration’s environment-related rulemakings or administrative actions.

PERMITTING REFORM POLITICS JUST GOT MORE INTERESTING

Nine Democrats voted for the measure: Sens. Tammy Baldwin (WI), Sherrod Brown (OH), Bob Casey (PA), John Fetterman (PA), Joe Manchin (WV), Gary Peters (MI), Debbie Stabenow (MI), Jon Tester (MT), and Ron Wyden (OR). One Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (KY), voted against it.

The Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval melds several hot political issues, including U.S. trade and manufacturing policy, competition with China, and climate change mitigation, into one.

The Commerce Department issued a preliminary determination in December finding that Chinese-parented companies exporting solar cells and modules from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia to the U.S. are circumventing existing duties on Chinesese solar products, setting the stage for tariffs to be extended to those imports.

The White House, by instituting the two-year moratorium on tariffs in June 2022, got ahead of that determination and took the side of many Democratic lawmakers, solar project developers, and their interest groups.

Renewable energy industry interests strongly opposed the CRA resolution to demolish what Biden called a tariff “bridge” to protect imports long enough to allow domestic solar manufacturers to build facilities to meet demand. One estimate suggested solar imports could owe up to $1 billion in retroactive duties if Biden’s emergency declaration is canceled.

Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, said repealing the tariff moratorium “poses a threat to the American economy and the clean energy transition.”

Domestic solar manufacturers supported the Commerce investigation and its findings supporting tariffs, arguing they are forced to play by different labor and other rules and can’t compete with solar products that are subsidized by the Chinese government.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Brown and other lawmakers agreed, opposing Biden’s moratorium.

“The Chinese government will do anything to undermine American manufacturing and would like nothing more than to kill the American solar manufacturing industry before it takes off,” Brown said in an announcement voicing support for the resolution. “The president got this one wrong.”