Activists hail President Joe Biden’s use of security powers to boost clean energy
Environmental groups have welcomed Joe Biden’s invoking of national security powers to rapidly expand
the production of clean energy technology as a significant advance in the effort to curb dangerous climate breakdown.
Biden has triggered the Defense Production Act, a cold war-era law used to compel businesses
to ramp up production of certain materials to aid national security,
to boost the output of solar panels, building insulation, transformers
for power grids and heat pumps, which are used to efficiently heat and cool homes.
The US president has also provided a two-year exemption to solar panel
companies from tariffs on imported parts, easing the flow of technology from
China and other countries for use in the US, a country where only 2.8% of electricity comes from solar power.