If you’re looking for a cause that unifies Americans of all political stripes across our often divided nation, one has emerged. One threat managed to coalesce dozens of congressional Republicans and Democrats, governors of both red and blue states, the Solar Energy Industries Association, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and the Heritage Foundation. It’s a request by two failed, foreign-owned companies — Chinese-owned Suniva and German-owned SolarWorld — for tariffs and quotas on imported solar cells that would approximately double the price of solar panels in the U.S.
The strong bipartisan opposition is no surprise. Nearly 90 percent of Americans voiced support for solar in a recent Pew poll. Moreover, the price increases that would result from attempting to bail out these two companies, which employed 2,000 people at their peak, would eliminate 88,000 construction and installation jobs.
