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posted by martyb on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the downward-economic-spiral dept.

The Center for American Progress reports

President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on imported solar materials is already taking its toll on U.S. jobs.

After putting plans on hold last month to expand its factories in the United States, SunPower Corp., one of the nation's largest solar panel manufacturers, now intends to lay off about 10 percent of its U.S. workforce.

SunPower attributed the job cuts to the 30-percent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported solar cells and panels, The Hill reported [February 28]. Company chief executive Tom Werner estimates the new tariffs will cause the company to lose $50 million in 2018 and as much as $100 million in 2019.

Werner's comments built on information that SunPower released in a filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. The news also came only two weeks after SunPower reported a 35-percent decrease in revenue in 2017 compared to 2016.

Werner told The Hill that it has already begun laying off between 150 and 250 workers from its U.S. operations. Based in San Jose, California, SunPower imports most of its components from manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and Mexico.

Trump slapped the 30-percent tariff on imported solar cells and panels in January after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last year that China had harmed the domestic solar manufacturing industry with policies aimed at taking over the global market. The industry gets about 80 percent of its solar panel products from imports.

The Solar Energy Industries Association, the primary lobby group for the U.S. industry, estimates Trump's decision may cost the fast-growing industry about 23,000 jobs in 2018 and cause billions of dollars in solar investments to be canceled or delayed. The industry currently employees more than 260,000 people, primarily in the installation business.

[...] In January, SunPower said it was putting a $20 million U.S. factory expansion and hundreds of new jobs on hold until its solar panels receive an exemption from Trump's solar tariffs.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:21PM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:21PM (#645955) Journal

    Modern factories probably pollute less. Nobody thinks of a semiconductor fab as a heavy polluter that is giving workers semiconductor lung.

    However, we do need to remove 2 regs for every new reg, so maybe your kids will need to bring their own filtration mask to work.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:50PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:50PM (#645972) Journal

    we do need to remove 2 regs for every new reg

    Wait. You mean I've been doing it wrong? I thought it was, for each existing reg, create 2 new regs, and continue until total number of regs < zero.

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  • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:19PM (1 child)

    by captain normal (2205) on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:19PM (#645998)

    Fab labs are only "clean" because a huge portion of the cost is building the air and water scrubbers to cut down on the toxins that are a by product of the plants.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:15AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:15AM (#646246)

      Fewer women have been allowed to work in them since the 1960s when it was found that birth defects at... I want to say Fairchild Semi. were having an above average number of birth defects, specifically in women working in the chip fabbing wings, where it was claimed the chemicals in use were safe, but for whatever reason obviously were not.

      Maybe with the bunny suits and everything now that is no longer true, but I somehow doubt it, and it might explain why outside development/almost fully automated fabs they have all been moved to the 3rd world...