(Reuters) – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin on Wednesday threw his support behind a legislative effort to repeal President Joe Biden’s suspension of tariffs on solar panel imports from four Southeast Asian nations that are the industry’s primary suppliers.
He is the first Democrat to co-sponsor a resolution introduced by Senator Rick Scott, a Republican, in February. The effort would need a two-thirds majority in the Senate to overturn a presidential veto, and Democrats have just a narrow majority.
Biden, a Democrat, has pledged to veto the legislation.
The effort to restore tariffs on companies in Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam is aimed at supporting domestic solar manufacturers that have struggled to compete with cheap panels made overseas.
The resolution was introduced under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a law that allows Congress to reverse federal agency rules. A CRA bill expires if it is not passed within 60 days of its introduction.
Manchin said the United States was too reliant on nations like China for its energy needs and failing to enforce trade laws undermined new laws that seek to boost domestic supply chains.
“I cannot fathom why the Administration and Congress would consider extending that reliance any longer and am proud to join this CRA to rescind the rule,” he said in a statement.
A conservative Democrat from the coal mining state of West Virginia, Manchin has regularly clashed with his party on energy policy. Most recently, he said he would vote to repeal the landmark climate change law he himself negotiated last year if the administration did not move quickly to implement the law’s fossil fuel investments.
Biden waived the tariffs for two years last June after solar project developers said they would increase their costs and freeze development of clean energy facilities needed to meet the nation’s climate change goals.
The resolution mirrors a bipartisan measure that is scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives on Friday.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Stephen Coates)
