In a joint letter on Tuesday to the Treasury Department, many of the largest steel manufacturers and United Steelworkers union criticized the Biden administration for helping Chinese manufacturers of steel through tax incentives and making it much harder for United States produced steel to be sold on the market.
The letter addressed the Treasury Department’s proposal to give out bonus tax credits for green energy projects relying on United States manufactured steel and other components however it allowed solar panel businesses to still use foreign steel for all if its key components and retain a 10% tax credit. So this means solar panel companies would buy its components from China at a large discount, avoid buying United States manufactured steel and then the federal government would still reward these companies with a 10% tax credit because they’re being “green.” China dominates the world in the production of steel and solar panels, so logically these companies would try outsourcing to save on costs, but they shouldn’t be rewarded or incentivized to do it!
According to the U.S. steel companies and union representatives, “If the current Guidance were to be made final, it would significantly damage U.S. domestic steel producers, putting at risk 1.5 million tons of production and jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of Americans who depend on our industry. Categorization of tracking systems as manufactured products would permit many of the structural steel components of new solar projects in the U.S. to be imported from China.”
The key objection the letter makes clear is the classification of the mechanism which enables the solar panels to follow the suns movement throughout the day, called a photovoltaic tracker. In the Treasury Department’s proposal, the photovoltaic tracker is classified as a “manufactured product” which would not require them to be made from domestic parts.
The entire so-called purpose of the Biden administration’s push to green energy via the Inflation Reduction Act is to promote domestic green energy companies and technologies while boosting local manufacturing, but this proposal would have serious consequences for United States steel companies and workers.
President Biden during the campaign trail claimed to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” and the steel companies and union are calling him on it.