Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) during Tuesday night’s debate accused the Biden administration of making the U.S. economy dirtier for not investing enough in domestic energy production and solar manufacturing.
Climate change and the administration’s energy policies came up early during the debate as Vance was pressed on former President Donald Trump’s past remarks calling climate change a “hoax.”
Pivoting from the original question, the Ohio senator quickly put focus on Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris questioning if she and the party “really believe” climate to be a serious issue.
“If they really believe that climate change is serious, what they would be doing is more manufacturing and more energy production in the United States of America, and that’s not what they’re doing,” Vance said.
He went on to accuse the administration of failing to invest in enough solar energy production, claiming the United States has become overly reliant on China.
“The real issue is that if you’re spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China,” Vance said.
“Number one, you’re going to make the economy dirtier. We should be making more solar panels here in the United States, in America,” he continued. “Some of them are, Tim, but a lot of them are being made overseas in China, especially the components that go into the solar panels.”
In July, a Reuters analysis found that Chinese companies were expected to have at least 20 gigawatts worth of annual solar panel production capacity in the U.S. within a year, reportedly serving around half of the nation’s market. However, that is not to say there has not been substantial growth among U.S. companies.
The U.S. Solar Market Insight Q2 2024 report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie in June found that 11 GW of new solar module manufacturing capacity came online in the U.S. during Q1 of this year. That marked the largest quarter of solar growth in U.S. history, bringing total capacity to 200 GW in the country.
At the same time, the U.S. has also seen record imports of solar panels from Southeast Asia. Earlier this year, a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence found that imports climbed to 17.4 GW, a 36% increase from last year. These imports were primarily driven by shipments from Vietnam and Thailand.
Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, the Commerce Department announced it would be setting new preliminary tariffs on solar panels from these nations, as well as Malaysia and Cambodia, in an effort to protect U.S. manufacturing.
The new tariffs were sparked by complaints from American manufacturers that claimed Chinese companies with facilities in the southeastern Asian nations were flooding the U.S. market with solar panels that threatened American competitiveness.
The new duty rates are expected to be set at around 9.13% for imports from Malaysia, 8.25% from Cambodia, 23.06% from Thailand, and 2.85% from Vietnam. A final order is reportedly expected in April.
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Some in the American solar industry have criticized increased rates, as many U.S. companies rely on imported solar cells.
“Imposing tariffs on solar cell imports, when there’s currently no solar cell manufacturing in the U.S., will only enhance the profits of incumbent manufacturers, and will stifle America’s ability to onshore the solar supply chain and meet the fast-growing demand for clean, affordable and reliable power supply,” President of Invenergy Jim Murphy told Reuters.