Policy Moving Forward: Reversing Protectionism Targeting Cleantech - CleanTechnica

The article from CleanTechnica critiques the protectionist trade policies targeting cleantech in the United States, emphasizing the negative economic and environmental consequences of tariffs on renewable energy technologies. It highlights how tariffs increase the cost of cleantech products like solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs), making them significantly more expensive in the U.S. compared to countries like China. Despite subsidies such as those in the Inflation Reduction Act, these measures only partially offset the higher prices, which in turn slows adoption of clean technologies, prolongs reliance on fossil fuels, and undermines long-term environmental and economic benefits. Politically, the article points out that both President Biden and former President Trump have pursued notably protectionist policies, with Biden being the most protectionist Democratic president in modern history. This protectionism is framed as a simplistic "us vs. them" approach that ignores the benefits of international trade and value exchange. The article warns that such policies echo the mistakes of Herbert Hoover’s era, which worsened the Great