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NEXT STEP FOR SOLAR INDUSTRY ON TARIFFS DEPENDS ON TRUMP: The solar industry is waiting for President Trump’s proclamation on solar tariffs to make them official before deciding what its next step should be, said Abigail Ross Hopper, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, on a call Tuesday.
Trump is scheduled to sign off on the tariffs Tuesday afternoon. The tariffs, to be levied over four years, are for 30 percent in the first year, 25 percent in the second, 20 percent in the third, and 15 percent in the fourth year.
“We are all talking about something we haven’t seen yet,” Hopper said on a call with reporters.
“We’ve seen a press release. And we’ve seen a fact sheet. But we haven’t seen a presidential proclamation,” she said.
Presidential tariff actions can be challenged in court, although Hopper hedged on whether that would be the industry’s next course of action. However, her referral to legalities hints that likely is the trade group’s next move. The principal way to challenge a tariff is to have a court review whether the president acted within the authority granted him by Congress.
Not a sovereign nation: The solar group is not a sovereign nation, so it won’t file a protest before the World Trade Organization, Hopper said.
She anticipates countries doing so, but said the WTO process could take years.
‘Harm’ from cheap imports: The International Trade Commission had urged Trump to apply tariffs, ruling U.S. solar panel manufacturers are being harmed by cheap imports from China and Southeast Asia. It had recommended in October a tariff of on solar cells of about 30 percent and a tariff on solar panels between 10 percent and 35 percent.
About 95 percent of the solar cells and panels sold in the U.S. are made abroad, with most coming from China, Malaysia, and the Philippines, according to SPV Market Research.
Job losses likely: Hopper said she expects 23,000 workers to lose their jobs as a result of the tariff decision.
Overall, “it’s been a long, long nine months,” she said, calling the group’s advocacy to block the decision an “exceptional amount of work.”
Although Trump is imposing the tariff, the final decision announced Monday “was much more restrained” than what the plaintiffs in the trade case had asked for.
Consumer cost: A 30 percent solar module tariff could increase the cost of residential rooftop solar systems by about 4 percent and the cost of distributed commercial solar projects by roughly 6 percent, according to an estimate by ClearView Energy Partners.
SOUTH KOREA THREATENS TO RETALIATE: South Korea said Tuesday it would “actively respond to U.S. trade protectionism,” including filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization.
China not fazed: Meanwhile, JinkoSolar Holding Co., the world’s largest producer of solar panels, seemed to roll with the punches. It said the decision wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and thought Trump’s actions would have been more severe.
Disappointed by undeterred: Major installers of U.S. rooftop solar expressed disappointment.
“We are disappointed by the administration’s decision on the trade case,” Sunnova CEO William J. Berger said Tuesday. “The solar industry embodies innovation, resiliency and job creation — all of the characteristics that have made our country great.”
But the president’s decision has not deterred the company, he said.
Solar will continue to be cost competitive even with tariffs: “Residential solar costs have come down significantly across the industry over the last five years and we expect those cost declines to continue, despite tariffs.”
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DEEP FREEZE SHOWS RISKS TO GRID FROM COAL RETIREMENTS, ENERGY DEPT. OFFICIAL SAYS: The reliability of the power grid is at risk from the retirement of baseload coal and nuclear plants, Bruce Walker, an assistant secretary at the Department of Energy, warned Tuesday.
Walker, testifying at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, said the grid relied heavily on those power sources during this month’s deep freeze that tested the country’s power grid.
Coal comeback: Grid operators reported that coal use soared during the cold snap in the Midwest and East Coast. Coal and nuclear were the top power sources during the freeze, while natural gas, the usual frontrunner, was third.
Walker says the grid’s integrity is because of the diverse fuel supply, especially on-site fuel that coal and nuclear can provide.
Proposed action: Walker proposed the Energy Department undertake take a detailed analysis that would essentially create a “single North American resilience” model of efforts from local, state and regional stakeholders.
“I understand that we currently do not have funds appropriated for such a task, so I am taking this opportunity to make my position clear: I believe building this resilience model should be the top priority for DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability over the coming years,” he said.
GRID EARNS PASSING GRADE: Kevin McIntyre, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, described a more optimistic picture of the power grid’s performance during the deep freeze.
FERC recently rejected a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to subsidize ailing coal and nuclear plants to reward them for storing fuel on-site to be used during extreme weather events.
“Although we are still receiving and reviewing data, it appears that, notwithstanding stress in several regions, overall the bulk power system performed relatively well,” McIntyre said at the Tuesday morning hearing. “There were no customer outages resulting from failures of the bulk power system, generators, or transmission lines.”
McIntyre, however, noted average energy prices in the East Coast regional wholesale markets were more than four times higher than the average energy price last winter.
“We also recognize that higher wholesale prices are ultimately born by retail customers,” he said.
PRUITT DECLARES ‘WAR ON LEAD’ THREE YEARS AFTER FLINT CRISIS: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has begun an effort to “eradicate” lead poisoning from drinking water, more than three years after the crisis in Flint, Mich., started.
The EPA asked for input on the feasibility of replacing all lead service lines as part of a revised Lead and Copper Rule.
Participants are convinced Pruitt is committed to making the rule tougher as the main focus of his “war on lead.”
‘Serious undertaking’ or not? “I got the sense there really is a serious undertaking at the EPA to revise the Lead and Copper Rule,” said Steve Via, director of federal relations for the American Water Works Association, which represents water utilities.
Critics question Pruitt’s sincerity, noting his aggressive agenda to delay, weaken, or eliminate other EPA rules, and suggesting the agency may try to weaken the Lead and Copper Rule to help the industry.
‘Not perfect’: The Lead and Copper Rule governs how much lead is acceptable in drinking water and what utilities must do if their water tests above the threshold. It requires public water systems to periodically test for lead and copper, limiting the amount of lead in drinking water to no more than 15 parts per billion.
Environmental advocates have argued for years that the law is easy to exploit and hard to enforce.
“The rule is not perfect,” Via said. “There are opportunities to make it better.”
SHUTDOWN FORCES DELAY OF HEARINGS ON TRUMP’S OFFSHORE DRILLING PLAN: The Trump administration has postponed public hearings scheduled this week for its controversial offshore drilling plan because of the partial government shutdown that ended Monday night.
The agency will announce new dates for the hearings soon.
Coast to coast: The Interior Department published its draft five-year offshore drilling plan in the Federal Register on Jan. 8, proposing to open nearly all federal waters to oil and natural gas drilling, despite the protests of nearly all coastal governors.
PUERTO RICO TO PRIVATIZE BANKRUPT POWER UTILITY: Puerto Rico will privatize its struggling state-owned power utility, Gov. Ricardo Rossello announced Monday, following decades of mismanagement and corruption and a halting response to Hurricane Maria.
He said the government will begin selling PREPA’s assets in the coming days, but the privatization will take 18 months.
School of fish: PREPA, which is bankrupt, has been criticized especially for signing a $300 million contract with small Montana firm Whitefish Energy to restore the island’s power.
Ricardo Ramos resigned in November as executive director of PREPA, under pressure after the Whitefish deal, which was later canceled and subject to multiple investigations in Congress.
History lesson: PREPA was failing before Maria hit and has been susceptible to political influence and corruption. It is responsible for $9 billion of Puerto Rico’s $73 billion debt load.
RUNDOWN
Washington Post While Yellowstone’s staff was furloughed, a snowmobiler got way too close to Old Faithful
CNN Five missing in Oklahoma gas well explosion
Bloomberg Elon Musk gets long-term Tesla deal, with no salary or bonus
Wall Street Journal China sucks gas out of global market amid shift from coal
Washington Post This big new idea for stopping climate change would cause even bigger problems, scientists say
New York Times Newly freed, Cliven Bundy gets a hero’s welcome in the rugged West
Bloomberg Climate change could make borrowing more expensive
Calendar
TUESDAY, JAN. 23
9 a.m., 11555 Rockville Pike. Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds a hearing on a construction permit for a northwest medical isotopes production facility.
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing to examine the performance of the electric power system in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic during recent winter weather events.
Noon, National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW. The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and Resources for the Future hold a discussion on “California’s Climate Action: Leadership from the States,” focusing on policies designed to combat climate change and encourage a sustainable energy future.
1 p.m., EPA holds a meeting by teleconference of the Human Studies Review Board to advise the agency on the ethical and scientific review of research involving human subjects, Jan. 23-24.
epa.gov/osa/human-studies-review-board
1 p.m., 11545 Rockville Pike. Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds a meeting of the NuScale Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to review draft proposed acceptance criteria for reviewing an exemption request from GDC 27 as part of the NuScale design certification application, Jan. 23-24.
1 p.m., EPA holds a meeting by teleconference of the Human Studies Review Board to advise the agency on the ethical and scientific review of research involving human subjects, Jan. 23-24.
epa.gov/osa/human-studies-review-board
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24
8 a.m., 2121 P St. NW. Energy Department holds the Wind Industry Partnership Summit to share innovative technologies that may be beneficial to your firm and engage industry leaders in a dialogue about the future of public research and development laboratory R&D investments, Jan. 24-25.
THURSDAY, JAN. 25
10 a.m., 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a field hearing, called “The Road to Tomorrow: Energy Innovation in Automotive Technologies,” to examine the opportunities and challenges facing vehicle technologies, especially energy-relevant technologies.
TUESDAY, JAN. 30
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds votes on Trump Energy and Interior nominees, including: Melissa Burnison to be assistant secretary of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs; Susan Combs to be assistant secretary of the Interior for Policy, Management, and Budget; Ryan Nelson to be solicitor for the Department of the Interior; and Anne White to be assistant secretary of Energy for Environmental Management.
All day, Altoona, Iowa. Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit kicks off at the Meadows Conference Center.
2 p.m., 1324 Longworth. House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Lands holds a legislative hearing on a bill to create the first tribally managed national monument — the Shash Jáa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument, formerly part of Bears Ears National Monument.
