Cypress Creek exec reviews ramifications of June 2024 Biden solar import moratorium expiration

In an interview with NPM, Cypress Creek Renewables’ Director of Federal Policy and Strategy Grant Carlisle discussed what he calls the ongoing “manufacturing boom” in the US with the Biden Administration’s moratorium on solar panel import tariffs set to expire in less than a year.

Carlisle, Cypress Creek’s head federal lobbyist, worked to get through the legislation that ultimately became the IRA for the better part of a decade, with his main goal being a tech neutral credit. But the IRA ultimately became much bigger than that as a major piece of legislation that sought to address domestic manufacturing and transferability of tax credits, as well as a tool to promote energy equity for low-to-moderate-income (LMI) households.

Ever since it passed, Carlisle notes the administration has been trying to keep up with a litany of questions as it slowly issues guidance on key tenets of the bill. The most recent tax transferability guidance actually came out faster than Carlisle expected; he says he was initially expecting guidance in 3Q or even 4Q but says the administration was “under a lot of pressure” to get the guidance out as quickly as possible.

“The industry has been waiting for something like this for a long time,” Carlisle said.

However, he says the administration still has a lot of work to do to clear up other question areas, particularly when it comes to the domestic content adder. Although the administration has already offered some initial guidance, Carlisle says what the administration released “did not answer a lot of the questions the industry and stakeholders still have.”

“I don’t know anybody that thinks they can meet domestic content requirements as they are laid out currently with the current state of manufacturing and the supply chain,” Carlisle said.

Casting a shadow on this is the June 2024 expiration of the Biden Administration’s moratorium on tariffs for solar module imports, which put a temporary salve on a chaotic first half of 2022 as solar developers scrambled to shore up supply. But even though Carlisle says the US manufacturing sector is nowhere near ready to bear the brunt of massive demand, he says definitively he expects the solar tariff moratorium to expire as planned next June.

“I don’t know anyone that is asking for an extension,” Carlisle said.

If that happens, Carlisle says the industry will likely experience another supply bottleneck next year despite what he calls an ongoing “manufacturing renaissance” in the US encompassing everything from clean energy to microchips. The problem is, the majority of the announced manufacturing facilities are not going to be online until late 2024 and 2025, which Carlisle says is the “main reason we’re not going to be able to meet domestic content requirements” in the short term.

“I think everyone accepts they’re going to have to make it work, but it’s going to be difficult,” Carlisle said. “Everyone is supportive of onshoring the supply chain. It may make things more expensive in the short-term, but it will ultimately be cheaper long-term than relying on the global supply chain.”

Beyond manufacturing, Carlisle says he is putting a lot of his focus on transmission and interconnection, which he denotes as “the big areas we have yet to solve.” In a previous interview with NPM, Carlisle said he was supportive of the recently proposed transmission ITC, but that he was skeptical such a bill would be passed in the near term. In particular, Carlisle says he is concerned about the rollback of NEPA requirements inserted into the recently passed debt deal. Carlisle says this measure was pushed for by the fossil fuel industry and, with that already in the books, it may be difficult to bring them back to the table for another transmission push this year.

“We’re not always at odds with fossil fuel companies,” Carlisle said. “Many of them are investing in renewable energy. But I’m afraid that because they just got their NEPA changes that they’re not going to come back to the table for a big permitting and siting bill later in the year.”

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.


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