Sen. Heinrich talks Biden's solar panel aid, immigration, and gun control reform

New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss solar panel tariffs, immigration, and the outlook for gun control reform.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Hundreds of solar energy projects are set to resume across the country, after the president waived new tariffs for certain panels manufactured abroad. The White House move came after heavy opposition from the solar industry over a Commerce Department investigation into potential violations by Chinese manufacturers circumventing existing tariffs.

Let's bring in New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, who's been a leading voice on this issue. Senator, it's great to talk to you today. You put out a statement on the back of the White House move earlier this week, applauding the president for his actions. And yet, I have to wonder if this action only increases the reliance on these key components coming in from China, just given how significant a market share they have. How should we be looking at it?

MARTIN HEINRICH: No, I think what the president's plan does is it keeps the jobs that we already have in the US, in US manufacturing of things like racking and tracking, inverters, all of those trade jobs installing existing panels, and the installers who do rooftop solar. And then it builds a bridge to more US manufacturing of actual panels. So rather than pitting one set of jobs against another domestically, in the US, what the president really said is, we're going to come up with a plan to make sure we have both. And we're going to build a bridge to more domestic manufacturing of solar panels themselves.

AKIKO FUJITA: In many ways, this debate over the Commerce Department's investigation has kind of exposed a big divide within the industry, those like Oxen Solar, First Solar, who are very focused on manufacturing in the US. And those developers were saying, look, we just can't continue to build that at the rate that's necessary without parts being imported. I mean, is that kind of the reality right now?

MARTIN HEINRICH: Well, and you just have to realize that Oxen and First Solar really represent such a small supply, that a huge amount of the existing jobs in creating utility scale projects, as well as creating distributed rooftop projects, couldn't exist over the course of the next couple of years. We need to about triple our domestic capacity to really have the kind of impact that we want.

And the president's plan does that. I mean, he was able to really garner private capital to scale up domestic manufacturing of solar panels. And you can't ask people who are working in those fields to just wait two years to start working in their jobs again. They need to be continually building capacity for the next two years, which is why the two-year waiver is so important.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about the larger issue of inflation. You've got your Democratic colleagues over in the House urging Democratic leaders to move on inflation, laying out a number of steps, including lifting tariffs, including immigration reform as well. Notably missing here is a push for a federal gas tax holiday. Where do you stand on that?

MARTIN HEINRICH: Well, I think it would make more sense to have some sort of inflation rebate directly to consumers. If-- there are many folks who are in high income brackets who I don't really think need a gas tax holiday. But I think it would be more useful, especially for people feeling the most pressure, the folks under the most economic strain, to have a rebate directly to them, rather than hoping that gasoline retailers would pass something like that on to consumers.

AKIKO FUJITA: What about on the issue of tariffs? I mean, it does feel like there is a divide within the administration, specifically on these tariffs for Chinese imports coming in. I've heard the argument about keeping tariffs in place for something like steel, but maybe more consumer-facing goods, tariffs should be lifted on that front. What do you think is a good compromise?

MARTIN HEINRICH: Oh, I actually think tariffs are probably not the place we should be looking to ease inflation pressure. We really need to look to the labor market. And immigration reform is the fastest, most efficient way to really get at what is driving a large portion of our inflationary pressure.

AKIKO FUJITA: What specifically on immigration? We've heard, for example, a number of tech companies who've spoken out, saying that they want more, the green card processing accelerated. But in terms of any kind of reform, I mean, that would take a little longer than something like tariffs where that can be an immediate impact, no?

MARTIN HEINRICH: Well, I do think the administration needs to realize that across the board, the previous administration throttled down immigration everyplace they could. And they have the power to, within the existing legal framework, increase immigration again, really upscale our staffing of all those places where we can ease labor pressures right now. And that would have a huge impact on inflation. And so much of our inflation has been tied to fossil fuel commodity prices. And so the faster we can make this transition to clean energy, the more we ease inflationary pressures there as well.

AKIKO FUJITA: Finally, senator, I do want to ask you about the debate around gun control legislation. It appears, at least what we've heard publicly, that these negotiations are not likely to yield any significant progress on an assault ban-- assault weapons ban, expanded background checks.

But I wonder how you're thinking about the role that businesses can play in this conversation. Some have suggested that banks, for example, just like the debate over climate, should not necessarily be financing some of these gun manufacturers. That credit card companies potentially could be stepping in to be looking at assault weapons purchases. I mean, what do you think is the role of business in all this in the absence of key legislation?

MARTIN HEINRICH: Well, first off, I'm not going to accept that we need-- that we are not going to come out with a product on this. I see a willingness right now on the Republican side of the aisle to really talk about tough issues that hasn't been there historically. And so, I'm not going to accept defeat out of the gate because the American people are focused on this in a way that really feels different this time. That doesn't guarantee that we're going to get there. But I do think these negotiations have been genuine on the part of many of my Republican colleagues.

Now, whether we can get to 60 is an open question. But I do think there is an opportunity here that has not existed in the past. And businesses are going to have to be part of this conversation, too. What role they choose to play has an impact. It's not a substitute for policy, but it definitely sends messages, especially economic signals, to all of the manufacturers in this space.

AKIKO FUJITA: New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, it's great to have you on today. Really appreciate the time.

MARTIN HEINRICH: Yeah, thank you for having me.