I own a small business that sells solar power and pumping systems. With great dismay I note that President Trump has put a 30% tariff on imported solar modules. This is the result of two ‘American’ companies (one headquartered in Germany and one in China) claiming that cheaper imports have hurt their bottom line. For all this administration’s talk of energy independence, this is simply stupid. The solar power industry is a bright spot in the U.S. economy, with one out of fifty new tech jobs now in the solar field. While his tariffs won’t stop this bourgeoning industry, it will cause job losses, and even now some projects are halted as they wait for the final disposition of new costs, and whom it will affect.
It makes no sense to me why Trump wants to slow down this great technology that provides good jobs and cost-effective clean energy. The price of solar power has dropped amazingly in the past 8 years, and in many places is cheaper, dollar per watt, than any other source of power.
The good news is solar power is here to stay, and we will survive this bump in the road; but our president doesn’t realize that this will hurt other small Montana businesses like mine. This seems extremely ill thought out to me, and to others in our fledgling industry.
Chris Daum
Stevensville