CLP Director, Jen Metzger, explains why the new 30 percent tariff on imported solar components will hurt the renewable industry.
Read the full article originally published in the Daily Freeman.
“If the president wants to help the renewable industry here, then he should end his cozy relationship with the fossil fuel industry and develop an energy policy that better supports the shift to a clean energy economy,” said Jennifer Metzger, co-founder of the group Citizens for Local Power.
“The new tariff will do more harm than good on the job front and will make it more costly for our residents and businesses to invest in solar and generate their own power,” said Metzger, who also sits on the Rosendale Town Board. “The new tariff is unlikely to do anything meaningful for manufacturing, and the vast majority of U.S. jobs in the solar industry, more than a quarter million, are dependent upon competitively priced solar cells and could be hurt by the new tariff. The fossil fuel industry is, I’m sure, thrilled by the new policy.”