President Joe Biden is invoking the Defense Production Act to support domestic solar panel component production. He’s also stabbing domestic manufacturers in the back by announcing a two-year “bridge” that will stop the Department of Commerce from imposing new tariffs on solar panel component imports.
This isn’t a compromise solution as the president has claimed — it’s a victory for Chinese corporations.
Just last week, the Commerce Department launched an investigation to determine whether Chinese corporations are circumventing American tariffs by funneling goods through third-party nations, such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Domestic manufacturers are split on the decision, as some are reliant on imported goods, while others are concerned about inferior Chinese goods flooding the market.
If the Commerce Department’s investigation discovered a circumvention of American laws, the right move would be to ensure compliance with our tariffs. However, Biden’s new order would give a pass to Chinese companies funneling solar components through other countries. In other words, he is instructing his administration to ignore possible breaches of American trade law by our primary economic rival — a decision that is both short-sighted and dangerous.
To be sure, solar energy is an important part of the transition to a cleaner energy grid, but Biden could be using his executive powers to support more efficient forms of clean energy without circumventing the authority of federal agencies. For example, there are costly regulatory burdens currently preventing the United States from pursuing nuclear energy, which could make the American energy grid much more efficient and cleaner.
Biden is not entirely unaware of nuclear energy’s benefits. Charlotte Whelan previously discussed the Biden administration’s moves toward nuclear energy in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner. “The recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included funds to maintain current nuclear power plants and invest in the development of new nuclear technologies,” she wrote.
Yet Whelan agrees that Biden can and should be doing more to help nuclear energy prosper. “If the Biden administration and governments across the world are serious about reducing carbon emissions, they need to embrace nuclear power and seek to expand its use,” she said.
The American Action Forum identified the need for reforms in nuclear energy regulations in a 2017 report. “Each plant can expect to pay annually $8.6 million in regulatory costs, $22 million in NRC fees, and $32.7 million for regulatory liabilities,” said authors Sam Batkins, Philip Rossetti, and Dan Goldbeck.
Moreover, nuclear energy is far safer than solar power, according to the AAF: “Per terawatt hour of electricity generation (equivalent to 1,000 gigawatts), nuclear is still the safest: 2.9 times safer than hydroelectric, 128 times safer than solar, and 131 times safer than fossil fuel power generation.”
So why is Biden trying to “bridge” the economy to future reliance on inferior Chinese components for a less efficient form of clean energy?
Biden should be encouraging the Commerce Department to do its due diligence in enforcing American tariffs and using the legal executive action he’s been granted to cut burdensome regulations. And if executive action is not enough to reform the burdensome costs associated with nuclear energy, Biden should also work with Congress on a commonsense clean energy bill that allows for innovation.
He would find support among congressional Republicans, who have already pledged support for free-market reforms that allow the energy sector to thrive. For example, the Energy, Climate, and Conservation Task Force, created by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and led by Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), is rolling out a climate and energy strategy that combines private-sector innovation with clean energy goals.
Biden has an opportunity to pursue more meaningful ways of producing clean energy, and using the Defense Production Act could be a step in the right direction for domestic solar production. But the way Biden is going about it is all wrong. Instead of bolstering the U.S.’s energy independence, he is turning a blind eye to possible Chinese malfeasance and ignoring the cleaner, more efficient form of energy right in front of us. That’s not a win for the U.S. — it’s a win for China.
