WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and a group of eight bipartisan senators sent a letter to President Biden urging him not to extend the current Section 201 tariffs on imported solar panels and cells, which are currently set to expire on February 6, 2022. As a result of these tariffs, domestic prices for solar panels are now among the highest in the world and significantly above the global average, which has severely and negatively impacted clean energy job creation in the United States.   

“According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), this led to the loss of more than 62,000 American clean energy jobs and 10.5 gigawatts of foregone solar deployment.  The Section 201 tariffs are currently set to expire on February 6, 2022, and we believe that extending the tariffs will do nothing but add unnecessary costs to U.S. consumers, hurt American solar jobs, and artificially stymie the deployment of otherwise viable solar projects in the United States,” wrote the senators.

“We write to request that you allow the Section 201 tariffs currently imposed on imported solar panels and cells to lapse,” continued the senators.“At a minimum, we ask that you retain the Section 201 tariff exclusion for bifacial solar panels and not apply the tariffs to imported solar cells. Such actions will support good-paying jobs in the clean energy sector here in the United States and promote investments in clean, renewable energy at a time when our nation and our environment need them most.”

In 2017, Senator Tillis led a bipartisan letter sent to the International Trade Commission urging against imposing Section 201 tariffs that would negatively affect the American solar industry.

Read the full letter here. 

###