Peace Garden News

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, voted for a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution he cosponsored to rescind a rule which waives tariffs on China-made solar products imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.  

“President Biden’s suspension of tariffs on imported solar tech is a shining example of environmental virtue-signaling at the expense of the American worker,” said Senator Cramer. “It keeps our supply chain dangerously reliant on China, instead of empowering domestic manufacturing, all in the name of climate change. My colleagues and I voted to put an end to this nonsense and undo this shortsighted rule from the administration.”

Click here for text of the resolution. It passed the Senate by a vote of 56-41, and the House of Representatives 221-202.

Background:

President Biden last year invoked an emergency authority under the Tariff Act, citing potential electricity supply shortages. Among suggested contributors, he pointed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, extreme weather events, and the limited ability to import solar modules at the scale “necessary to achieve our climate and clean energy goals.”

Although solar energy makes up only 2.8% of electricity in the U.S., the Commerce Department published this two-year duty suspension, allowing China to sidestep import tariffs.

Original source can be found here.