(Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a bill that would ban Chinese solar panel makers from claiming subsidies for their U.S. factories.
WHY IT MATTERS
The American Tax Dollars for American Solar Manufacturing Act was introduced as some of the world’s largest solar panel manufacturers, based in China, set up factories in the United States. Their facilities are supported by new tax credits created by President Joe Biden’s landmark climate change law, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The Biden administration is eager to invest more in clean energy to create jobs in the US, while at the same time avoiding becoming overly dependent on its geopolitical rival China.
Some U.S. solar equipment makers say they are finding it difficult to compete with the flood of cheap imports and are concerned about China’s outsized presence in the global market.
MAIN QUOTE
“We cannot allow American tax dollars to go to Chinese companies that defraud and undermine American solar production,” Senator Sherrod Browna Democrat from Ohio, in a statement.
Brown’s legislation was co-sponsored by fellow Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia and two Republican Senators: Rick Scott of Florida and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Diane Craft)
