Science
Solar Industry ‘Frozen’ As Biden Administration Investigates China
Plans to put in 60 sq. kilometers of photo voltaic panels in Vermont are out of the blue on maintain.
In Maine, a photo voltaic farm that will energy lots of of properties is partly constructed however won’t be accomplished.
And a mission in Texas that will have powered greater than 10,000 properties was weeks away from breaking floor however has now been postponed till a minimum of subsequent 12 months.
Across the nation, photo voltaic corporations are delaying initiatives, scrambling for provides, shutting down building websites and warning that tens of billions of {dollars} — and tens of 1000’s of jobs — are in danger.
The tumult is the results of a call by the Commerce Division to analyze whether or not Chinese language corporations are circumventing U.S. tariffs by shifting parts for photo voltaic panels by way of 4 Southeast Asian international locations.
Although officers haven’t but discovered any proof of commerce violations, the specter of retroactive tariffs has successfully stopped imports of crystalline silicon panels and parts from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. These 4 international locations present 82 p.c of the most well-liked sort of photo voltaic modules used within the U.S.
In a matter of weeks, 318 photo voltaic initiatives within the U.S. have been canceled or delayed, and lots of of corporations are contemplating layoffs, in line with the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation, which surveyed greater than 700 corporations in latest days.
Vitality consultants warn that the fallout is barely starting. A monthslong halt on imports from the 4 international locations might have lasting ramifications for the multibillion-dollar photo voltaic trade and for the Biden administration’s bold objectives to ramp up renewable power growth to fight local weather change.
“The trade is actually frozen,” stated Leah Stokes, a political scientist who research local weather on the College of California, Santa Barbara. “It’s already resulting in layoffs, to say nothing of the influence on our local weather objectives.”
The Commerce Division initiated its investigation on March 25 after Auxin Photo voltaic, a small photo voltaic panel producer based mostly in California, filed a petition requesting an inquiry into whether or not China was circumventing guidelines meant to forestall state-subsidized photo voltaic elements from flooding the U.S. market.
Tariffs on Chinese language photo voltaic panels have been in place since 2012, when the Obama administration imposed them in hopes of selling home manufacturing and stopping China from dominating the rising world market. In 2018, President Donald J. Trump imposed further tariffs on sure photo voltaic merchandise from China, and Mr. Biden prolonged these tariffs in February.
For greater than a decade, China has dominated the worldwide provide chain for photo voltaic panels. The federal government’s insurance policies and subsidies have nurtured big factories churning out supplies like polysilicon and parts like photo voltaic cells that soak up power from daylight and convert it into electrical energy.
To keep away from commerce issues, U.S. photo voltaic installers have purchased lots of their panels from the 4 Southeast Asian international locations. However in line with Auxin, lots of these panels are manufactured by abroad subsidiaries of Chinese language corporations and use cells, wafers and different elements that originated in China.
Till now, the Commerce Division had signaled that as a result of the elements coming from China have been considerably reworked by the businesses in Southeast Asia, these parts weren’t topic to the tariffs.
But when the Commerce Division finds that the panels coming from Southeast Asia included Chinese language-made elements that ought to have been topic to tariffs, panels bought within the U.S. after the beginning of the investigation might carry steep duties. And the specter of these further prices has brought on shipments of photo voltaic panels to grind to a halt.
In an interview, Auxin’s founder and chief govt, Mamun Rashid, stated that he filed the petition as a result of he believes that current tariffs are being undermined and hopes this investigation will assist spur home manufacturing.
“Possibly the commerce legal guidelines are being violated, that dishonest is occurring,” Mr. Rashid stated. “We determined it will be irresponsible of us to not do one thing, to not communicate up.”
Mr. Rashid stated he had acted on his personal and was not working in live performance with another power corporations, buyers or trade teams.
The method for evaluating commerce disputes is a fancy system designed to forestall political interference. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo this week stated that her division was legally obliged to pursue the difficulty.
“My arms are very tied right here,” she stated at a listening to on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. “I’m required by statute to analyze a declare that corporations working in different international locations try to avoid the duties, and I’m required by statute to have a fulsome investigation.”
A spokesperson for the Commerce Division stated that it was “driving efforts to strengthen provide chains on the coronary heart of the clear power transition, together with the photo voltaic provide chain,” and that it was “dedicated to holding international producers accountable to taking part in by the identical guidelines as U.S. producers.”
Final 12 months, the USA put in roughly 24 gigawatts of latest photo voltaic capability, a document aided by the plummeting price of panels. However solely about one-fifth of these panels have been manufactured domestically, whereas the remaining have been imported primarily from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.
As the consequences of the federal investigation ripple throughout the U.S. photo voltaic trade, its advocates are incensed.
“It’s an absurd end result that the mere request by one firm can carry the trade to its knees on this approach,” stated Abigail Ross Hopper, chief govt of the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation. “The U.S. photo voltaic market is in chaos. Shipments have stopped, installations are stalled, and persons are beginning to be laid off.”
The sudden freeze in photo voltaic panel set up is colliding with Mr. Biden’s purpose to speed up the annual tempo of photo voltaic installations nationwide with a view to understand his pledge to chop U.S. emissions a minimum of 50 p.c under 2005 ranges by the top of this decade.
“For an administration that embraces renewable power growth as one in all its core objectives, this tariff investigation has undermined all of that,” stated Nick Bullinger, chief working officer of Hecate Vitality, a photo voltaic firm based mostly in Chicago. “The investigation is having catastrophic adverse influence on the renewable power sector and driving up electrical energy costs. With every day the tariff investigation continues, the nation is falling additional behind in attaining our local weather objectives.”
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The disruption is hitting corporations giant and small.
NextEra Vitality, one of many largest renewable power corporations within the nation, stated it anticipated that between two and three gigawatts price of photo voltaic and storage building — sufficient to energy greater than 1,000,000 properties — can be not be accomplished this 12 months as deliberate.
“It’s completely disrupting our photo voltaic enterprise and the trade’s as effectively,” stated David Reuter, chief communications officer at NextEra. Shares in NextEra have fallen 15 p.c up to now three weeks.
At Inexperienced Lantern Photo voltaic, a personal photo voltaic installer based mostly in Vermont, work on initiatives in Vermont and Maine has come to a standstill.
“The ramification could be very vital, not solely to Inexperienced Lantern however all of our contractors,” stated Scott Buckley, Inexperienced Lantern’s president. “We needed to name all of our suppliers and have exceedingly robust conversations to say, ‘Thanks, however we are able to’t take deliveries.’”
In complete, the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation stated that its members have been forecasting a 46 p.c decline within the variety of photo voltaic panels they’ll set up by way of subsequent 12 months.
Nevertheless, one other large photo voltaic firm, First Photo voltaic, which manufactures a kind of photo voltaic panel unaffected by the tariff dispute, stated it was supportive of the investigation.
“What we’re serious about is making certain that there’s a stage taking part in area for home producers,” stated Reuven Proneca, a spokesman for First Photo voltaic. “We really feel that the Division of Commerce’s resolution to proceed with the investigation is a step in the fitting route.”
For U.S. corporations in search of photo voltaic panels, there are few simple substitutes for merchandise from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We now have referred to as each American panel producer that we might discover, and never one in all them has panels accessible for us with any anticipated timeline that may permit us to maintain these initiatives shifting ahead,” stated Mr. Buckley of Inexperienced Lantern Photo voltaic.
Some photo voltaic trade advocates have urged that the Commerce Division has the power to rapidly reverse course and put a swift finish to the investigation.
“The secretary’s arms are something however tied,” Heather Zichal, chief govt of American Clear Energy, wrote in a weblog put up. “She has a path that’s codified within the statute to cease a pointless course of initiated over a phantom menace — and she will be able to use these choices within the coming weeks to breathe life again into an American photo voltaic trade whipsawed by her division’s actions.”
However Ms. Raimondo, responding to a query on Wednesday from Senator Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, stated there was solely a lot she might do. “What I’ll decide to you is shifting as quick as doable,” she stated.
Some analysts have argued that the USA must make investments way more closely in home manufacturing with a view to compete with the abroad manufacturing of photo voltaic merchandise. The Construct Again Higher invoice in Congress, as an example, would offer new tax credit for photo voltaic wafers, cells and modules produced at house. However that laws stays in limbo after Senator Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat, got here out in opposition final 12 months.
Whereas the photo voltaic trade awaits a call by the Commerce Division, renewable energy advocates fear that point is ticking away. The Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation estimates that the misplaced or delayed photo voltaic deployment ensuing from the investigation will result in a further 364 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2035, the equal of preserving 78 million gasoline-powered automobiles on the street.
“It’s going to decelerate the trade at a time once we should be shifting sooner,” stated Ms. Stokes. “This might be catastrophic.”
Brad Plumer contributed reporting.
A cluster of workers at Ventura County berry farms have been diagnosed with a rare disease often transmitted through sick animals’ urine, according to a public health advisory distributed to local doctors by county health officials Tuesday.
The bacterial infection, leptospirosis, has resulted in severe symptoms for some workers, including meningitis, an inflammation of the brain lining and spinal cord. Symptoms for mild cases included headaches and fevers.
The disease, which can be fatal, rarely spreads from human to human, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ventura County Public Health has not given an official case count but said it had not identified any cases outside of the agriculture sector. The county’s agriculture commissioner was aware of 18 cases, the Ventura County Star reported.
The health department said it was first contacted by a local physician in October, who reported an unusual trend in symptoms among hospital patients.
After launching an investigation, the department identified leptospirosis as a probable cause of the illness and found most patients worked on caneberry farms that utilize hoop houses — greenhouse structures to shelter the crops.
As the investigation to identify any additional cases and the exact sources of exposure continues, Ventura County Public Health has asked healthcare providers to consider a leptospirosis diagnosis for sick agricultural workers, particularly berry harvesters.
Rodents are a common source and transmitter of disease, though other mammals — including livestock, cats and dogs — can transmit it as well.
The disease is spread through bodily fluids, such as urine, and is often contracted through cuts and abrasions that contact contaminated water and soil, where the bacteria can survive for months.
Humans can also contract the illness through contaminated food; however, the county health agency has found no known health risks to the general public, including through the contact or consumption of caneberries such as raspberries and blackberries.
Symptom onset typically occurs between two and 30 days after exposure, and symptoms can last for months if untreated, according to the CDC.
The illness often begins with mild symptoms, with fevers, chills, vomiting and headaches. Some cases can then enter a second, more severe phase that can result in kidney or liver failure.
Ventura County Public Health recommends agriculture and berry harvesters regularly rinse any cuts with soap and water and cover them with bandages. They also recommend wearing waterproof clothing and protection while working outdoors, including gloves and long-sleeve shirts and pants.
While there is no evidence of spread to the larger community, according to the department, residents should wash hands frequently and work to control rodents around their property if possible.
Pet owners can consult a veterinarian about leptospirosis vaccinations and should keep pets away from ponds, lakes and other natural bodies of water.
It’s been two weeks since Donald Trump won the presidential election, but Stacey Lamirand’s brain hasn’t stopped churning.
“I still think about the election all the time,” said the 60-year-old Bay Area resident, who wanted a Kamala Harris victory so badly that she flew to Pennsylvania and knocked on voters’ doors in the final days of the campaign. “I honestly don’t know what to do about that.”
Neither do the psychologists and political scientists who have been tracking the country’s slide toward toxic levels of partisanship.
Fully 69% of U.S. adults found the presidential election a significant source of stress in their lives, the American Psychological Assn. said in its latest Stress in America report.
The distress was present across the political spectrum, with 80% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats and 73% of independents surveyed saying they were stressed about the country’s future.
That’s unhealthy for the body politic — and for voters themselves. Stress can cause muscle tension, headaches, sleep problems and loss of appetite. Chronic stress can inflict more serious damage to the immune system and make people more vulnerable to heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, infertility, clinical anxiety, depression and other ailments.
In most circumstances, the sound medical advice is to disengage from the source of stress, therapists said. But when stress is coming from politics, that prescription pits the health of the individual against the health of the nation.
“I’m worried about people totally withdrawing from politics because it’s unpleasant,” said Aaron Weinschenk, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay who studies political behavior and elections. “We don’t want them to do that. But we also don’t want them to feel sick.”
Modern life is full of stressors of all kinds: paying bills, pleasing difficult bosses, getting along with frenemies, caring for children or aging parents (or both).
The stress that stems from politics isn’t fundamentally different from other kinds of stress. What’s unique about it is the way it encompasses and enhances other sources of stress, said Brett Ford, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto who studies the link between emotions and political engagement.
For instance, she said, elections have the potential to make everyday stressors like money and health concerns more difficult to manage as candidates debate policies that could raise the price of gas or cut off access to certain kinds of medical care.
Layered on top of that is the fact that political disagreements have morphed into moral conflicts that are perceived as pitting good against evil.
“When someone comes into power who is not on the same page as you morally, that can hit very deeply,” Ford said.
Partisanship and polarization have raised the stakes as well. Voters who feel a strong connection to a political party become more invested in its success. That can make a loss at the ballot box feel like a personal defeat, she said.
There’s also the fact that we have limited control over the outcome of an election. A patient with heart disease can improve their prognosis by taking medicine, changing their diet, getting more exercise or quitting smoking. But a person with political stress is largely at the mercy of others.
“Politics is many forms of stress all rolled into one,” Ford said.
Weinschenk observed this firsthand the day after the election.
“I could feel it when I went into my classroom,” said the professor, whose research has found that people with political anxiety aren’t necessarily anxious in general. “I have a student who’s transgender and a couple of students who are gay. Their emotional state was so closed down.”
That’s almost to be expected in a place like Wisconsin, whose swing-state status caused residents to be bombarded with political messages. The more campaign ads a person is exposed to, the greater the risk of being diagnosed with anxiety, depression or another psychological ailment, according to a 2022 study in the journal PLOS One.
Political messages seem designed to keep voters “emotionally on edge,” said Vaile Wright, a licensed psychologist in Villa Park, Ill., and a member of the APA’s Stress in America team.
“It encourages emotion to drive our decision-making behavior, as opposed to logic,” Wright said. “When we’re really emotionally stimulated, it makes it so much more challenging to have civil conversation. For politicians, I think that’s powerful, because emotions can be very easily manipulated.”
Making voters feel anxious is a tried-and-true way to grab their attention, said Christopher Ojeda, a political scientist at UC Merced who studies mental health and politics.
“Feelings of anxiety can be mobilizing, definitely,” he said. “That’s why politicians make fear appeals — they want people to get engaged.”
On the other hand, “feelings of depression are demobilizing and take you out of the political system,” said Ojeda, author of “The Sad Citizen: How Politics is Depressing and Why it Matters.”
“What [these feelings] can tell you is, ‘Things aren’t going the way I want them to. Maybe I need to step back,’” he said.
Genessa Krasnow has been seeing a lot of that since the election.
The Seattle entrepreneur, who also campaigned for Harris, said it grates on her to see people laughing in restaurants “as if nothing had happened.” At a recent book club meeting, her fellow group members were willing to let her vent about politics for five minutes, but they weren’t interested in discussing ways they could counteract the incoming president.
“They’re in a state of disengagement,” said Krasnow, who is 56. She, meanwhile, is looking for new ways to reach young voters.
“I am exhausted. I am so sad,” she said. “But I don’t believe that disengaging is the answer.”
That’s the fundamental trade-off, Ojeda said, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
“Everyone has to make a decision about how much engagement they can tolerate without undermining their psychological well-being,” he said.
Lamirand took steps to protect her mental health by cutting social media ties with people whose values aren’t aligned with hers. But she will remain politically active and expects to volunteer for phone-banking duty soon.
“Doing something is the only thing that allows me to feel better,” Lamirand said. “It allows me to feel some level of control.”
Ideally, Ford said, people would not have to choose between being politically active and preserving their mental health. She is investigating ways to help people feel hopeful, inspired and compassionate about political challenges, since these emotions can motivate action without triggering stress and anxiety.
“We want to counteract this pattern where the more involved you are, the worse you are,” Ford said.
The benefits would be felt across the political spectrum. In the APA survey, similar shares of Democrats, Republicans and independents agreed with statements like, “It causes me stress that politicians aren’t talking about the things that are most important to me,” and, “The political climate has caused strain between my family members and me.”
“Both sides are very invested in this country, and that is a good thing,” Wright said. “Antipathy and hopelessness really doesn’t serve us in the long run.”
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