S&P Global Quotes Devin Sikes on Trump Executive Order to Protect Power Grid

Akin Gump international trade counsel Devin Sikes has been quoted from a recent Energy Storage Association webinar in the S&P Global story “US government action to protect power grid potentially impacts energy storage.” The article reports that participants in the U.S. energy storage market who operate at the bulk power system level should evaluate their supply chains and limit equipment transactions involving foreign adversaries in light of actions by the Trump administration to protect national security.

Last fall, the article says, the U.S. Trade Representative imposed tariffs on Lithium ion batteries from China that are used in stationary energy storage systems. Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order laying the groundwork for a ban on power grid equipment from foreign adversaries that pose a national security threat. The article says these two moves raise important issues related to certain energy storage equipment, including possibly with regard to China.

The Trump administration has favored the use of tariffs as part of its intense enforcement of trade, said Sikes, which has caused Congress to question whether it wants to claw back some of the authority it has granted the President under various trade laws.

Lithium ion batteries were covered in the list of equipment subject to tariffs, and the Energy Storage Association submitted a request for exclusion for those batteries, but to date the U.S. Trade Representative has not acted on that request, Sikes said.

To learn more about the executive order, click here to read an Akin Gump client alert that Sikes co-authored.