Throughout solar technology’s checkered history, one thing has remained constant:\u00a0 It\u2019s not a cost-effective way to generate electricity.<\/p>\n
Despite technological advance and even falling prices for solar panels, that unfortunate reality remains true.<\/p>\n
For that reason, environmental activists and political liberals have succeeded in creating a complex array of local, state and federal subsidies<\/a> to prop it up \u2013 funded by your hard-earned tax dollars.\u00a0 Solar simply cannot compete as a power source without distorting the market through generous government subsidies.<\/p>\n To be clear, we at CFIF maintain no arbitrary animosity toward solar energy itself, or any form of energy for that matter.\u00a0 We believe, however, that American consumers and taxpayers should remain aware that certain fashionable forms of energy\u00a0 – conspicuously available to only some <\/em>people \u2013 are subsidized in whole or in part by wasteful government spending.\u00a0 By now we’re all well aware of the danger when government power is used to pick winners and losers in the market, but solar subsidies constitute a particularly bad example<\/a>.\u00a0 Artificial favoritism toward the solar sector has benefited rooftop solar users at the expense of taxpayers and consumers who don\u2019t or can\u2019t utilize solar.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how that distorted scheme works.<\/p>\n Favored homeowners exploit a generous 30% federal tax credit and other bureaucratic incentives to install rooftop solar systems.\u00a0 Afterward, utility companies must then repurchase the excess power generated by the solar panels at full retail price under a policy known as “net metering.” That, in turn, allows rooftop solar users to enjoy the benefits of traditional electrical generation, and the grid that distributes electricity, without contributing to the broader costs associated with keeping the lights on, so to speak.\u00a0 Meanwhile, consumers without solar remain on the hook for the maintenance of the electrical grid.<\/p>\n There’s an ugly irony that seems to have escaped most liberals who advocate that system of subsidies.\u00a0 Namely, most consumers remain unable to exploit the system of handouts because they can\u2019t afford solar in the first place.\u00a0 Accordingly, liberals have created a government subsidy in which middle-income and lower-income consumers end up subsidizing wealthier homeowners.\u00a0 How’s that for class warfare?<\/p>\n