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RECOUNTING THE BATTLE LEADING UP TO TODAY’S VOTE: House passage of H.J. Res. 39 this morning is the culmination of more than a year and a half of battling between domestic manufacturers and the larger solar lobby over whether extending tariffs to Asian solar imports is a good idea.
How we got here: Things took off in fall of 2021 after an anonymous group of solar manufacturers, claiming injury, petitioned the Commerce Department to open an anticircumvention investigation into cell and module imports from: Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
That didn’t work. Petitioners failed to satisfy the department’s requirements for an antidumping/countervailing duties probe, in part because they insisted on remaining anonymous (something their legal counsel said they sought to do for fear of retaliation).
California-based module manufacturer Auxin Solar later put its name on a similar petition, added Cambodia, and celebrated when Commerce took it up in March 2022.
Thereafter: The solar lobby was quick to jump at the probe, arguing for its dismissal and saying the threat of tariffs would crimp an industry integral to the achievement of President Joe Biden’s climate goals and one that was already seeing growth slow because of supply chain challenges.
The Solar Energy Industries Association brought member executives to Washington to campaign against tariffs, and several solar developers told us the probe and prospect of tariffs left their companies in a “holding pattern.”
Biden’s action, reasoning, and today’s vote: Which brings us to Biden’s solar emergency. Biden used his trade powers to declare an emergency last June, putting in place a two-year moratorium on the extension of tariffs to imports from the countries targeted in the investigation.
He did so during the thick of high energy prices when the world was just a few months deep into the war in Ukraine, and said it was necessary in light of “threats to the availability of sufficient electricity generation capacity to meet expected customer demand.”
Importantly, the declaration came before Commerce concluded its investigation and said one way or the other whether imports have been skirting duties on Chinese products.
The IRA changed things: Manufacturers had been aligned with opponents of the AD/CVD investigation all the while on one thing: The need for an industrial policy that would accelerate the domestic solar industry at large.
They got that in the Inflation Reduction Act, which created new tax credits for manufacturing solar and other clean energy products and expanded existing subsidies for solar project construction and the like.
Commerce also changed things: The department announced its preliminary findings in December that several Chinese-parented companies have been skirting tariffs on solar products in violation of trade law.
That led Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee and Republican Rep. Bill Posey to introduce their resolution of disapproval.
Commerce is planning to finalize its investigation next month, which will include the tariff rates to be imposed on the companies found to be circumventing — but Biden’s tariff moratorium will protect them from those tariffs as long as it stands.
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EPA ISSUES EMERGENCY E15 WAIVER FOR SECOND STRAIGHT SUMMER: EPA issued an emergency volatility waiver for E15 gasoline for the second year in a row, a big win for the biofuels interests that want the restrictions axed permanently.
Biden first turned to E15 last April after the war in Ukraine broke out and gasoline prices were ballooning. Prices later reached a nominal record above $5 per gallon on average nationwide.
Prices have tamed and average $3.63 per gallon today. The agency said the waiver would give drivers access to cheaper fuel and be good for U.S. energy security, agriculture, and manufacturing.
The lead up: The decision was welcomed by the Iowa Renewable Fuel Association, which had been lobbying alongside other trade groups for another E15 waiver.
EPA announced a proposed rule in March that would grant requests from eight states to effectively equalize regulations between E10 and E15.
E10 receives a waiver under the Clean Air Act to exceed federal rules that regulate smog pollution from tailpipe emissions during the summer months, when smog is worse due to the warmer temperatures.
Governors in eight states where corn and ethanol production are big industries, including no. 1 corn producer Iowa, along with Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, all requested that the EPA remove the E10 waiver as a way to increase E15 in the fuel supply, and the agency proposed to oblige.
But EPA’s proposed rule wouldn’t take effect until next year, leaving the industry without a solution this year.
Today’s waiver remedies that but on an even larger scale, affecting the entire nation rather than just those eight states.
Second big win of the week for ethanol: The waiver comes after the Iowa House delegation won changes in Republicans’ debt ceiling package that saved biofuels and carbon sequestration tax credits supporting the industry.
NEW YORK SET TO BAN NATURAL GAS IN NEW BUILDINGS: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers struck a handshake deal yesterday to phase out all natural gas appliance hookups for new buildings beginning in 2026, making it the first state to adopt such legislation as it seeks to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Though the deal stops short of an outright ban on natural gas appliances, it will ban natural gas hookups in most new residential and commercial buildings under seven stories beginning in 2026. By 2029, that will extend to large commercial and industrial properties as well.
Keeping track: The ban would be the most sweeping so far, but many states and localities are advancing restrictions on gas hookups and appliances. Bans on gas stoves, however, are now in some legal doubt thanks to a 9th Circuit ruling against a ban in Berkeley.
NORD STREAM SABOTAGE UPDATE – RUSSIAN VESSEL SPOTTED NEAR SITE BLAST: A Danish patrol boat spotted a Russian special naval vessel sailing near the Nord Stream gas pipelines four days before the explosion last September, according to the local news outlet Dagbladet Information, further muddying the waters about who might be behind the gas pipeline explosions that have been described as an act of sabotage.
The Russian special SS-750 vessel is designed “precisely” to carry out special underwater operations, and has a mini AS-26 submarine onboard, intelligence experts said. It was captured in dozens of photos by Danish and Norwegian patrol vessels, which have not been made public because the investigations are ongoing.
In the months since the attack, there have been many conflicting reports about who is to blame, with Russia pointing fingers at the U.S. and the U.K. Western intelligence reportedly suggested a pro-Ukrainian group was behind it, and subsequent reports said a state-sponsored actor was likely responsible for carrying out the attacks.
CLIMATE PROTESTERS SMEAR PAINT ON FAMED SCULPTURE IN D.C.: Two climate protesters with the group Declare Emergency smeared paint on the pedestal and glass cover of the “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in D.C., the latest instance in which climate activists targeted famed works of art in order to shock bystanders.
The two protesters were captured on cell phone video smearing their hands in black and red paint and covering the casing before police handcuffed and removed them from the gallery. According to the Declare Emergency group, both protesters were arrested.
The group has been behind other protests this week in the D.C. area designed to draw attention to climate change and pressure Biden to order a climate emergency. Earlier this week, three Declare Emergency were arrested after blocking traffic on the George Washington Memorial Parkway holding signs that read “DECLARE EMERGENCY,” and “NO WILLOW PROJECT.”
The Rundown
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