The <i>actual</i> reason for those subsidies is to protect the US solar panel industry. China&#x27;s panels are artificially cheap because China massively subsidizes their manufacture. These are known as &quot;countervailing duties&quot; [1].<p>The likely alternative to that is allowing China&#x27;s subsidized panels to undercut domestic producers, we have cheap panels until our industry goes entirely out of business, and then have prices get jacked up because the competition is gone.<p>EDIT: If you want to stop aiding the US oil&#x2F;gas&#x2F;utility industries, there are plenty of direct subsidies and tax breaks that could be removed instead of the tariffs on Chinese PV panels.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Countervailing_duties" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Countervailing_duties</a>