Senate Climate Hawks Heinrich, Whitehouse, Schatz Welcome President Biden’s Executive Action to Spur Domestic Clean Energy Manufacturing, Save Solar Jobs

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) issued the following joint statement after President Joe Biden declared a two-year solar tariff suspension window while also invoking the Defense Production Act to boost U.S. solar manufacturing. The Senators have been urging the Biden administration to assess the validity of a recent solar tariff petition with the Department of Commerce that would severely harm the U.S. solar industry and its 250,000 American solar workers.

“We applaud President Biden for his actions today, which will unfreeze supply chains and give our local solar companies the certainty they need to start building projects again. Today’s executive actions will save and create thousands of American jobs, lower costs for families, keep solar projects on track to support the reliable operation of our electricity system, and build a bridge for our domestic solar manufacturers to scale up their operations and become more competitive in the global market,” said Heinrich, Whitehouse, and Schatz.