With Halloween around the corner, teenagers and adults alike will dust off classic scary movies, ranging from the comical (Ghostbusters) to the terrifying (The Exorcist). They may have seen these movies dozens of times, but they continue to be surprised and still jump at the sight of these demonic possessions when young Regan “spider-crawls” down the stairs of her mother’s Georgetown home or ghosts terrorize New York City. Like these and other scary movies, Congress is on the verge of yet another horror show that has been seen too many times: a taxpayer-funded bailout.
Set the Sun on Solar Subsidies
In Nevada, one of many states where taxpayers have been subsidizing solar projects for years, the Public Utility Commission of Nevada (PUC) voted unanimously on December 23, 2015, to increase net metering rates over the next four years. Two days before the vote, SolarCity declared that it would cease operations in the state if the subsidies were repealed. However, the PUC’s decision did not mean the fight was completely over for Solar City and other providers.
Social Impact Partnerships: No Social Solyndras
Too often, Congress seems to blindly throw money at the problem du jour and then, without any measure of effectiveness, consider its work to be complete. This tired (yet persistent) approach may help to explain why federal spending has metastasized unabated, while many social ills remain unsolved.
Cloudy with a Chance of Subsidies
As tax rebates and incentive payments to businesses continue to deplete revenue intended for Oklahoma’s General Revenue Fund (GRF), which has fallen more than 13 percent below estimates, legislators must come up with a remedy. Otherwise, the $1.3 billion budget shortfall will continue to grow.
Pushing Back on the Global Warming Hypothesis
When it comes to global warming, President Obama has often said “the science is settled.” If that is so then it does not make sense that 300 scientists, engineers, economists, and others sent a letter on January 25, 2016, supporting the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology for their efforts to “ensure that federal agencies complied with federal guidelines that implemented the Data Quality Act” in their examination of a hotly debated National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study. They wrote that the law, also called the Information Quality Act (IQA), “required government-wide guidelines to ‘ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information, including statistical information,’ that was disseminated to the public. Individual agencies, such as the EPA, NOAA and many others were required to issue corresponding guidelines and set up mechanisms to allow affected parties to seek to correct information considered erroneous.” The signatories believe that NOAA, an agency within the Department of Commerce, has failed to follow the IQA and that this “is an issue of international relevance because of the weight given to U.S. Government assessments during international negotiations” such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body created by the United Nations.
The Moral Hazard of Subpriming Solar
In January 2016, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced the launch of the $30 million Mass Solar Loan Program (MSLP). MSLP will provide residential solar customers income-based loan support and interest rate buy downs. The program will also include a subprime loan loss reverse scheme to reduce the risk to lenders, opening the door for financial chaos to ensue.
Solar Wars: The Revenge of the Subsidies
Those who have followed the solar energy debate may be the only ones aware of “net metering.” For everyone else, it is worth understanding what it means and how it works.
Net Metering: Get Subsidies or Die Tryin’
The pro-solar energy activists have been on full alert since the Nevada State Legislature passed a solar bill last May that failed to raise the net metering cap for rooftop solar customers.
Solar Socialism 2.0: The Subsidy Saga Continues
On December 1, 2015, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) published a report, “The Sun Should Set on Solar Socialism.” The report reviewed the history of federal energy subsidies, particularly the dramatic increase in funding following the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Between 2004 and 2015, tax expenditures for alternative electricity generation cost $13.7 billion, according to the Internal Revenue Service; meanwhile, the University of California at Berkeley Energy Institute at Haas Business School stated that total tax expenditures for the four largest clean energy tax credits had cost more than $18 billion since 2006.
Obama’s Clean Power Plan: All Pain, No gain
During a January 2008 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, then-Senator Barack Obama remarked that under his ideal energy plan, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” He further noted that by capping greenhouse gasses, producers of energies like coal would need to make vast changes and, “that will cost money. They will pass that money onto consumers.”