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Comment by mozumder | Hacker News Reader

Best part is he's trying to protect solar manufacturing plants, which are largely automated and only employ a few highly-skilled people, while harming installers, which need hundreds of thousands of working-class lower-skill manual laborers to install on roofs.

Congratulations white-working-class Trump base, you played yourself.

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Having those US solar manufacturing plants buy materials in the US and machinery made in the US creates more US jobs.

More jobs for robots.

Do you know how few jobs a solar panel factory produces? It's on the order of a few thousand.

If you want a LOT more jobs, you need to make sure solar panels are as cheap as possible in order for more to be installed, which is where the labor costs will be.

If China can make cheaper solar panels, LET THEM.

Who builds those robots? Who installs them. Who creates the factories? Who designs the robotic software. Who sells that software & robotics equipment. Who makes the raw material.

> If China can make cheaper solar panels, LET THEM.

That's a short term win long term loss attitude. China then becomes the R&D center for the next gen energy equipment. That's not in the best long term interest of the US.

Why do you assume they are going to buy materials and machinery made in the USA?

US industry is actually very competitive with Chinese industry when it comes to the key ingredient in silicon PV, high purity silicon. Unfortunately, retaliatory tariffs from China that followed the last round of anti-Chinese solar tariffs in the US have prevented US silicon exporters from serving the huge Chinese solar silicon market. Hemlock had to write off over a billion dollars and mothball a nearly-finished US silicon plant, and REC and Wacker's plants in the US are running below capacity. So there is plenty of high quality, low cost refined silicon capacity in the US if wafer and cell plants start operating here. Specialized solar manufacturing equipment is more likely to come from European companies, e.g. Meyer Burger.

It's a matter of proportion. Tariffs are some of the most destructive and distortionary taxes you could implement. The costs will be borne by many, and the benefits, a select few.

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