William J. Kemble reports in The Daily Freeman that most Hudson Valley solar energy developers and their supporters in the Mid-Hudson region criticized the 30 percent tariff on imported solar components President Donald Trump set earlier this week. One company Kemble talked to, however, supports the tariff. “If the president wants to help the renewable industry here, then he should end his cozy relationship with the fossil fuel industry and develop an energy policy that better supports the shift to a clean energy economy,” said Jennifer Metzger, co-founder of the group Citizens for Local Power. “The new tariff will do more harm than good on the job front and will make it more costly for our residents and businesses to invest in solar and generate their own power,” said Metzger, who is also on the Rosendale Town Board. Nationally, the Solar Energy Industries Association claims the tariff will lead to the delay or cancellation of billions of dollars of investment in solar energy and the loss of 23,000 jobs this year. But Frank Falatyn, who was vice president of the Solar Energy Consortium in Ulster County, supports the new tariff. “We had Solar Tech Renewables ... at TechCity (in the town of Ulster) and they were building solar panels, but they were pushed out of business because they were too small and the Chinese pushed them out with their low costing,” he said. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.