Top climate officials in the Biden administration are warning that a federal investigation into alleged dodging of tariffs by Chinese suppliers has put the domestic solar industry in peril just as the United States is trying to ramp up clean-energy production.

White House officials and their allies in the solar industry have grown increasingly exasperated over a Department of Commerce investigation into panel makers from four Asian countries. The industry and its allies in Congress are demanding that Cabinet officials intervene to blunt the damage, but Commerce officials say their hands are tied by federal statute.

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Others see the investigation as a necessary disruption, citing China’s record on human rights and climate change. “Shortages show why the U.S. must rebuild solar equipment manufacturing, and that won’t happen if our market is flooded with imports made cheap by Uyghur forced labor and high-carbon coal-fired silicon smelting,” said Lori Wallach, a trade policy expert at the American Economic Liberties Project.