I found the claim that he is being fined for buying chinese solar panels... dubious. So I figured there must be more to the story.
Apparently the "tough import policy" is a limitation to the 30% tax credit people can get for installing solar panels. The rules of the credit were changed in May to make it only apply to american-made panels: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display...
His company, Sunrise Solar, encourages customers to take the tax credit for his products: http://www.sunrisesolar.net/
This appears to be where the potential fines are coming from.
I'm not sure. But I was confused about how an "import policy" could result in him being "fined as much as 250 percent on his solar panels." That didn't seem like the result of any sort of tariff I've ever seen.
So I went to his website, saw the tax credit advertisement, figured that might have something to do with it and googled it.
And while your linked 31% tariff may be the "tough import policy" referenced in the article, I'm still having trouble understanding how that turns into a 250% fine.
Something does seem off there, but maybe it's sloppy reporting. The article states:
Unless he can show specific manufacturing documentation
by August 29, Keith said he could be fined as much as
250 percent on his solar panels -- an effective rate of
$270,000.
Besides the 250% "fine", the dangling $270,000 reference (and calling it a 'rate') is confusing.
The policy is intended to thwart China from undercutting
prices and flooding the U.S. market with cheaper solar panels.
I find this rather disturbing. If solar energy is ever going to replace fossil fuels the price of panels will have to fall quite a lot. Is the Obama administration now actively preventing solar energy from becoming cheaper?
China is subsidizing their solar manufacturing industry...
They spend $100 to manufacture a panel, only to sell it at $50. The government then gives that manufacturer $60 to keep them operating.
Their game is to keep doing this until the rest of the world can no longer afford to make domestic solar manufacturing viable.
This practice kills the US industry, and doesn't exactly lead to cheaper anything at the end... It just removes competition and establishes a monopoly that then gets to decide the price all by itself.
The US government should also be subsidizing solar energy. If it's not cost competitive against oil, they should subsidize it until it is. The estimates are that by 2020 solar will reach fossil fuel cost parity. So you're only talking 8-ish years to subsidize the solar industry. But instead the incompetent government lets US solar companies go out of business all the while continuing to subsidize oil companies that import from the Middle East. It all just wreaks of hypocrisy and corruption.
Combine this with the necessity of "sharing" technology in order to enter the Chinese market -- including manufacturing in China -- and you have a very effective mechanism for crippling and wiping out (short-sighted) foreign competition.
R&D is now moving to China, but a lot of what they've been selling has been technology that has actually been developed abroad.
P.S. I'll add with respect to the OP's article that as much as anything else, immediate and drastic changes -- that otherwise well-functioning businesses cannot plan for -- are one of the largest banes of government mis-management.
Businesses can succeed in a variety of regulatory and tax environments, but when there is no consistency and predictability to these, business stops. Where they have the ability, smart businesses start looking for other markets. Where they don't -- and small business is often by necessity a niche business; there is nothing fundamentally "wrong" with this -- they often cease to exist.
As much as anything, it's not a particular regulation nor tax rate that is "killing business" in the U.S., it is also the utter failure of effective government management. Necessary government management. Anyone who lived through the civil rights abuses (including in the workplace, mind you), pollution, and numerous other problems -- crises -- of past decades knows it is necessary.
You don't get investment without a corresponding, manageable level of risk.
Sounds that way, but this article is clearly not telling the whole story. Whatever the policy really is, the Customs Department implemented the policy, and the Department of Commerce will review it later this year.
I feel bad that there is a large and unanticipated tariff that is affecting him, but he basically built his business on the promise that he was an American made company, and it turns out they do a critical part of the work in Hong Kong.
If there's no suitable American manufacturer then is it better for him to maintain his naive integrity and shutter the company, or to compromise on one part of the assembly?
And in any case, it's irrelevant to the tariff discussion.
Rather than second guessing this Mr. Keith's situation, why don't you ask Bill Keith himself to explain and produce the "documentation". He does claim to have a letter from some government agency demanding he pay this 250% tariff.
I think pieces of all of your comments are true, but it also seems that the big picture is that these regulatory moves always seem to favor the BIG boys, and purposely target the small business to prevent them from competing in a true free market. Solar really doesn't cost anywhere near the actual sum of parts and labor. Can you say "Solyndra"???
Why do these fans need such a specialized solar panel? Can't something be redesigned to take a more standard panel? Wouldn't a more standard panel be cheaper to source, and have more suppliers?
Based only on my assumptions, but dealing with solar panels fairly regularly for solar-powered security cams, it's probably a size/efficiency thing.
Spinning a motor takes a fair amount of power, and they probably want the entire unit to be as small as possible. So I'm guessing he is starting with higher-efficiency panels (more power output per given area), and then possibly modifying them to run on different voltages for the motors.
Apparently the "tough import policy" is a limitation to the 30% tax credit people can get for installing solar panels. The rules of the credit were changed in May to make it only apply to american-made panels: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display...
His company, Sunrise Solar, encourages customers to take the tax credit for his products: http://www.sunrisesolar.net/
This appears to be where the potential fines are coming from.