A few weeks ago, the Trump administration announced a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels. Trump's intent is to bolster a dying fossils fuels industry, and (possibly) to promote U.S. products.

The solar industry is predicting some significant declines in the market, especially in utility scale. The tariffs may reduce the projected pipeline of new solar construction in the U.S. by 7.6 gigawatts over the next five years, according to GTM Research.

Another case of poor "Trumpenomics." If Trump truly believed in free market capitalism, he might have let utilities build with the lowest cost panels.

Besides that, there are no new coal jobs, Mr. Trump.

Bloomberg News writes, "Despite Trump's rhetoric, the U.S. coal industry continues to shrink, mostly because of issues surrounding the fuel's environmental ramifications, along with an aging industry infrastructure and a greater focus on renewable energy. Solar and wind are the fastest-growing U.S. sources of electricity."

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While North Dakota still gets three-fourths of its power from aging, coal-generating sources, it might be time to look to the future. North Dakota is ranked ninth in wind potential, and the Ft. Berthold reservation itself has 17,000 times more wind than it could use, according to studies. Standing Rock is similar. And, the big dams which flooded those tribes out can be used as "batteries" firming the intermittent power of wind and added solar. That's energy security. This spring, Standing Rock will work towards more renewable energy. North Dakota has immense renewable potential.

If we had used the $3.9 billion spent on the Dakota Access Pipeline on renewable energy, we would have 5 kilowatts per house of residential solar power--about half the need--for 64,629 houses; 323 two-megawatt wind power plants--enough to power most of North Dakota; and 161,000 retrofits worth about $8,000 a piece for individual homes that could save some homeowners around $300 a year in heating costs. If we used what North Dakota spent on militarizing and stripping people down, that would be enough for most of the folks on Standing Rock. Now that's energy independence.

In northern Minnesota, miners are looking at renewables. Heliene, the only solar photovoltaic panel manufacturer left in Minnesota, has received the final piece of a loan package- $3.5 million from the state. Those funds, according to Heliene's president Mark Pochtaruk, will help fund a complete equipment refurbishment. The plant should employ 50 workers by July. Up to $1 million of those credits would be forgiven if the Iron Mountain solar plant has 70 employees within four years. Heliene will itself invest more than $5 million in overhauling the plant, including installing a new production line.

Minnesota's solar gardens continue to grow. Leech Lake reservation has created a shared community solar project, helping low income tribal members, and the first in the nation formally integrated with an energy assistance program.

"There's a disproportionate impact on our low-income neighbors when the cost of energy goes up," Jason Edens explains. Edens is director of the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance partner on the project with Leech Lake Ojibwe. "If we can stabilize the cost of energy on behalf of our low-income communities, we can address one of the root causes of energy poverty."

The 200-kilowatt capacity system produces about 235 megawatt hours per year. Part of that electricity will feed directly into tribal buildings; the rest will be sold to local utilities. On the White Earth reservation, 20 kilowatts were just installed on a tribal school in Pine Point, with similar projects underway in other villages.

In the meantime, Tesla's solar roof tiles is about one-third more than a slate roof, and three times the price of an asphalt shingle roof. They are selling out, and they are American made. Locally, a solar thermal manufacturing facility is under construction on the White Earth reservation resulting in more American or Native American jobs.

If Trump wants to make American jobs, he should support projects like Minnesota's Heliene Solar Manufacturing plant in the Iron Range. And we should boot up solar. After all, wind and solar employ three times as many people per dollar spent over fossil fuels. And, those jobs make for a solid future. What if we retrained all those workers in dying industries for new industries? Now that would be visionary, and North Dakota could do it. In fact, we should.

LaDuke is executive director, Honor the Earth, and an Ojibwe writer and economist on Minnesota’s White Earth Reservation.