Washington (October 31, 2017) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, today released the following statement after the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) recommended several measures in a trade case that could harm the domestic solar industry, including enacting steep new tariffs or instituting quotas. In August, Senator Markey joined Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and a bipartisan group of Senators urging the ITC to not impose protectionist measures that would negatively affect the American solar industry.
 
“Today’s action provides President Trump and the fossil fuel industry the means to kill the solar energy industry in the United States and the hundreds of thousands of blue-collar American workers it employs. Any attempt By President Trump to make solar power more expensive or impose quotas as a result of this case would be a misguided attack on blue-collar jobs. The solar industry is poised to create 100,000 U.S. jobs over the next three years. We created as many solar jobs in the United States just last year as exist in the entire coal mining industry today. This Halloween, we should unmask this ITC decision for the fossil fuel trick that it is to ensure the solar industry can continue to succeed in the United States.”
 

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