The largest U.S. renewable energy company, NextEra Energy Resources, has cautioned President Joe Biden against imposing additional tariffs on clean energy technologies from the Chinese mainland, arguing that such measures could impede the nation’s progress toward a green transition.
Rebecca Kujawa, CEO of NextEra, expressed concerns that these tariffs would drive up consumer costs and hinder the achievement of clean energy goals. “Any uncertainties in the development process can definitely create higher costs for customers and make it more difficult to get some of the clean energy goals that the Biden administration has over the finish line,” she told the Financial Times.
Industry experts share Kujawa’s apprehensions, warning that new tariffs on clean energy products from the Chinese mainland, including solar panels and batteries, could obstruct the U.S. from meeting its 2035 decarbonization targets. They argue that the tariffs will raise the prices of renewable energy technologies, slowing the pace of decarbonization and increasing the overall cost of the green transition.
Jim Murphy, CEO of Invenergy, questioned the rationale behind the tariffs. “We don’t have domestic manufacturing here, so why should we be tariffing imports?” he asked, emphasizing that the tariffs would make solar technology less financially attractive for customers due to uncertain costs.
Industry Division
The proposed tariffs have caused a rift within the renewable energy industry. While large domestic manufacturers view them as necessary to compete with inexpensive Asian imports, operators fear they will elevate the costs of renewable energy due to limited domestic supply. Herbert Crowther, an analyst at Eurasia Group, noted that tariffs would lead to “slower, short-term deployment” until a domestic industry is established.
“There is a natural tension between China policy and climate policy at this point in the U.S.,” Crowther said. “In the U.S. political context, ultimately, China policy sells much more than climate policy.”
Last month, the Biden administration introduced a round of tariffs on clean technologies from the Chinese mainland following concerns that affordable imports were undercutting domestic manufacturers benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act. On June 7, the U.S. International Trade Commission agreed to continue investigating a petition from solar manufacturers, including First Solar and Qcells, seeking anti-dumping duties on solar cell producers in Southeast Asia.
David Fickling, a Bloomberg columnist, argues that the U.S. still lacks sufficient solar capacity to meet its decarbonization goals by 2035. He pointed out that globally, the necessary tripling of renewable power by 2030, as targeted by the G20, is not being met.
Fickling noted that increasing tariffs on imports from the Chinese mainland could exacerbate this shortfall, making it harder to build the required number of solar and wind farms and the factories needed for their components. He warns that such measures will increase costs and slow down the transition to clean energy.
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NextEra CEO says Biden's China tariffs will hinder green transition
cgtn.com
