House Votes to Keep Solar-Tariff Moratorium on the Chopping Block

After clearing the House Ways and Means Committee on April 17, the full House today passed legislation to repeal the Biden administration’s June 2022 proclamation to provide a two-year moratorium for new solar tariffs.

“The two-year solar tariff moratorium was imposed as a strategic bridge to stand up U.S.-based manufacturing capacity while allowing developers to keep building projects and move us toward our clean energy goals,” says Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

“The United States cannot produce enough solar panels and cells to meet demand, and the remaining 14 months of this moratorium gives us time to close the gap,” she explains. “The United States can get there and become a global leader in clean energy manufacturing and development.

“Overturning the moratorium at this stage puts that future at risk.”

The legislation will now advance to the Senate, where Democrats hold a majority – but the measure’s future is still uncertain.

“ACP urges the Senate to consider the negative impact on American workers and allow the solar industry the time it needs to establish a dynamic and resilient domestic manufacturing base,” says American Clean Power Association (ACP) CEO Jason Grumet.

“Unreliable and careening economic policy is bad for business and bad for America,” he remarks. “Congress must do better.”