Earlier, Biden decided to use wartime laws to spur domestic production of solar panels along with other types of green energy generation. According to the president, there is a need for the country to abandon oil and gas and reduce U.S. reliance on supplies coming from "hostile" countries.
In this regard, Biden proposed to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to address the problem through duty exemptions, which will last for two years or up to lifting the emergency for imports of solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Noting that about three-quarters of all solar modules installed in the U.S. by 2020 are from countries in Southeast Asia, the president pledged that the White House has already entered into discussions with domestic companies to encourage them to promote domestic production.
According to the U.S. president, the Russian special military operation in Ukraine has disrupted world energy markets and is therefore to blame for the country's energy crisis. Without commenting on the impact of the recently imposed ban on Russian energy imports, Biden named climate change and extreme weather events as other factors that have triggered the crisis.
The president called for the installation of more solar panels as the only solution to the threat of power generation shortages, while opposing an increase in the use of fossil fuels. He said that the Pentagon has recently recognized climate change as a threat to U.S. national security.
Speaking on the need to reduce the impact on climate, Biden said plans to expand nearly half of the generation capacity in 2022 and 2023 through solar panels were disrupted by the unavailability of solar modules.