Washington, D.C. – At a U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) reiterated her support for Nevada’s solar industry by calling on the administration to streamline implementation of solar tax credits she secured in the Inflation Reduction Act. She also urged her colleagues to oppose a proposed Senate resolution that would re-impose tariffs on solar panels from partner countries that are critical for the U.S. Last June, Senator Cortez Masto pushed the Biden administration to announce a two-year suspension of solar tariffs that could have killed American jobs and increased solar costs.
Senator Cortez Masto pressed the administration on the short application window and implementation process for tax credits she secured in Inflation Reduction Act to support renewable energy investments in low-income communities. She urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to share the administration’s process for revising the guidance and implementing these essential credits in way that provides certainty for solar companies.
Secretary Yellen responded by saying that the administration is finalizing the regulations and the first phase of applications for this credit will open in the third quarter of this year.
Senator Cortez Masto also criticized her colleagues’ proposed resolution that would re-impose tariffs on solar panels from partner countries, noting, “…if we don’t get these supplies [and] deal with the tariffs, we are going to be limited in the amount that we can grow.”
Senator Cortez Masto has been a leader in supporting the solar industry and the energy jobs it creates. She spoke out against the imposition of tariffs under prior administrations, and pushed the Biden administration to suspend solar tariffs that could have killed American jobs and increased solar costs. In 2020, she secured vital extensions of the Investment Tax Credit and the residential renewable energy tax credit for solar. Senator Cortez Masto was able to successfully advocate for two additional years of renewable energy tax credits for the solar industry and its workers. She built upon that work last year, when she secured billions in investments to increase solar and geothermal energy production through expanded tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. She’s also introduced legislation to expand the solar manufacturing supply chain in the U.S.
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