Nineteen governors have signed a letter sent to President Joe Biden and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to express "deep concern" over the Department of Commerce (DOC) investigation into imports of solar components, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
The letter, released by SEIA May 16, shares the same concerns conveyed by SEIA in recent months; namely, that the investigation will cause "market uncertainty" that could jeopardize imports of solar materials, slow or cancel solar projects, cause job layoffs and losses, and set back the clean-energy transitions. The letter urges the administration to fast-track a determination on the investigation.
"The current market disruption jeopardizes much of the progress achieved by the domestic solar industry and we fear this will only continue for the duration of the investigation," the governors state in the letter. "Almost immediately, solar prices have jumped because of dramatic drops in solar product imports, threatening the livelihoods of more than 230,000 American workers who rely on solar jobs and raising energy costs on families."
The investigation centers on a complaint filed Feb. 8 to the DOC by U.S. solar-energy company Auxin Solar Inc. that alleges solar-panel components labeled as from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia were actually from China, which would subject the imports to duties, according to an April 13 report by Commerce Newswire. The countries used as routing points for the materials are not subject to U.S. import duties.
More than 20 senators and other members of the Biden administration have also requested the investigation be expedited to relieve uncertainty in the solar industry, according to a report by the American Prospect (TAP) published May 12. In the report, TAP outlines ties SEIA members have to Chinese-owned companies.
The report states politicians and others who support the SEIA position do not "disclose that among (SEIA's) leading members are the same Chinese-owned companies that are implicated not only in the investigation of illegal tariff evasion, but in the use of slave labor to produce solar components and coal-fired energy to power the factories."
U.S. subsidiaries of Chinese producers are members of SEIA, including JinkoSolar, JA Solar, Trina Solar, BYD, and LONGi Solar, TAP reports. The companies are "the dominant solar component manufacturers in the world," according to TAP. The report states JinkoSolar got a seat on SEIA's board in 2019.
Nick Iacovella and Mike Stumo of the bipartisan nonprofit group Coalition for a Prosperous America, spoke to TAP about concerns over SEIA's connections to Chinese companies implicated in the investigation.
“If you look at SEIA, if they have to advocate on one side or the other, they always benefit Chinese solar companies,” Iacovella said in the TAP article. Stumo called SEIA an "agent of LONGi and Jinko" that in the past would have been subject to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, TAP reports.
Several member companies allege Chinese companies have stopped shipping products to them in retaliation for the investigation; however, Factoid 6, LONGi, JinkoSolar, Canadian Solar, and Trina Solar have all had imports blocked due to concerns over slave labor. On June 23, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will take effect, fully prohibiting goods produced in Xinjiang from being imported to the U.S.
Although the investigation centers on duties circumvention by China, the manufacture of solar components in China's Xinjiang region has long been associated with slave labor, especially of the minority Uyghur population. The Commerce Newswire article reports that enslaved Uyghurs produce 45% of the world's solar-grade polysilicon, a necessary component of 95% of solar modules.
TAP reports several Chinese-owned companies that are SEIA members "have publicly admitted to using slave labor," despite signing an SEIA pledge to ban forced labor. The use of coal-fired plants to make the solar panels negates the clean-energy goals of solar energy, the report notes.
While SEIA focused on the climate costs in their complaints against the investigation, the TAP article states "(i)f Chinese solar panels are dirtier to produce, some of the climate benefit is muted. If they’re made with forced labor, it shocks the conscience. And if they are wantonly violating trade laws, then the share of Chinese dominance will grow, adding a host of problems, not just for the economy, but for the climate as well."
"The need to build out the green transition is great, and solar is a key facet of that," TAP reports. "But SEIA has overhyped the destruction of solar in the past, and there’s reason to be skeptical of its apocalyptic claims today."
