$100 million Texas solar project on hold as Trump administration threatens tariff

[TexasTowelie]

President Donald Trump hasn't yet decided whether to impose tariffs on cheap imported solar equipment, but the uncertainty has already killed or slowed projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars and cost Texas jobs.

A 100-megawatt, $100 million solar farm near Fort Stockton has been put on "indefinite hold" awaiting Trump's decision, said Scott Canada, senior vice president of renewable energy for McCarthy Building Companies. That project, he said, would have employed about 300 to 400 people for nine months at the peak of construction.

"It's been a significant hit just within the last six months," he said about a federal agency's recommendation to impose up to 35 percent tariff on imports. "Every one of our customers said things are pretty much indefinitely on hold until there's clarity."

In Texas, a higher tariff could risk the exponential growth in electricity production from solar energy — if all approved projects get built, Lone Star State's solar capacity would triple from about 1,000 mega watts to more than 3,000 by 2020.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2017/11/09/100-million-texas-solar-project-hold-trump-administration-threatens-tariff

[Fred Sanders]

1. The solar company needs to think like a RW business. Not 300 or 400 jobs during the peak

of construction, throw in the off shoot jobs and pretend tens of thousands of jobs created, like Keystone did. And hire a publicity team to push it in the media.

We are just too honest sometimes.