The US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down much of President Donald Trump’s tariff regime won’t have much impact, for better or worse, on beleaguered US clean tech companies. When Trump rolled out sweeping “Liberation Day” global tariffs last year, it looked like a surefire way to raise the cost of clean energy projects, which are heavily reliant on hardware imported from manufacturers in Asia.
First Solar, a US manufacturer with many supply chain links to Asia, saw its stock price tick up after the ruling. But in general, scrapping those particular tariffs “will have a rather limited impact on the US clean tech sector going forward,” Cindy Jia, head of the sustainable solutions group at Dutch bank ING, told Semafor. The industry is still simultaneously juggling tariff uncertainty, other restrictions on Chinese imports, slashed tax credits, competition with low-cost gas, permitting bureaucracy, and worker shortages. And, Jia said, “for clean tech players who were negatively impacted by the IEEPA tariffs, they also unfortunately have limited options to pursue refunds for higher import costs or seek damages for projects that were put on hold or cancelled as a result.”