Monday, August 31, 2015

It all comes tumbling down if the subsidies disappear

The propping-up of the play-like energy sector by the Most Equal Comrade's regime is a fetid stew of Cloward-Piven planned decline and financial gain by a few on the backs of tax[payers generally.

Solyndra, for instance, was predicated on a flat-out lie:

The Department of Energy’s Inspector General revealed last week that the legendary solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra—a poster baby of the Obama stimulus—lied to the feds to get a $535 million loan guarantee before going bust in 2011. Solyndra is a cautionary tale, but the Obama Administration is still throwing caution to the sun. 
The IG report, which follows a four-year investigation by the IG and FBI, describes how Solyndra engaged in a “pattern of false and misleading assertions,” including inflating the value of corporate contracts and sales, to win a giant loan guarantee in 2009. 
All evidence suggests that DOE was a willing victim. The IG notes that DOE loan officers felt “tremendous pressure” from the White House and Congress to rush through loan-guarantee applications. In their haste DOE officials failed “to ask specific questions, and require specific assurances” and overlooked major red flags.

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The larger problem is that the White House is more concerned with boosting the politically favored solar industry than protecting taxpayer dollars. More troubling, the solar industry may be growing too big to fail, and the Administration is assisting another taxpayer solar scam.

Here's what's really going on behind the supposed growth of the solar-energy sector:

Solar installations increased 30% last year thanks partly to cheaper photovoltaic panels, but also a rush to cash in on the 30% federal investment tax credit that expires next year. The largest tax credit beneficiaries are big businesses like Wal-Mart and Google, solar-leasing companies and their investors. The financiers of SolarCity,which installs and leases rooftop panels, include Goldman Sachs,Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase—the guys Mr. Obama loves to hate.
As the President dryly remarked, these businesses are “not doing this just out of altruism.” The real reason: Solar leases are a high-yield political investment.
Here’s how this dubious business works. Solar-leasing companies install rooftop systems (which often cost tens of thousands of dollars) at no upfront consumer cost. Homeowners rent the panels for 20 years at rates that typically escalate over time but are initially cheaper than power from the grid. Investors get to pocket the myriad state and federal subsidies while homeowners are promised hundreds of dollars annually in savings on their electric bills.
Sounds fantastic. The catch is that the teaser rates could shoot up if government subsidies are scaled back. 

Do not be intimidated out of speaking the plain truth: free-market economics and dense, plentiful energy sources are the obviously grown-up, truly beneficial way to proceed with regard to post-America's energy needs.

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