“Stimulus” Bill Includes Green Giveaways

The pork bill that Congress passed on Monday has been criticized on many appropriate grounds, but I haven’t seen much comment on the fact that it betrays taxpayers and users of electricity (all of us) by perpetuating and expanding “green” energy mandates. The bill includes:

* A two-year extension of the investment tax credit (ITC) used by solar power generators (keeping the ITC at 26% through year-end 2022 instead of falling to 22% in calendar year 2021)

* A one-year extender for the production tax credit (PTC) used by wind developers, and a NEW 30% ITC for offshore wind projects that commence construction by the end of 2025.

* Re-authorization the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy and the Weatherization Assistance Program through fiscal year 2025, and a requirement that the Secretary of the Interior seek to permit at least 25,000 MW of wind, solar and geothermal projects by 2025.

Wind and solar energy are a bad joke. They are obsolete, unreliable, and ridiculously expensive if all costs are included–something that “green” advocates never do. These industries, therefore, could not exist without government mandates and subsidies. Which means, in turn, that they are lavish contributors to politicians.

There are people getting rich on wind and solar projects, and they owe it all to government. Of course, those people aren’t you, me, or the hundreds of millions of Americans who buy electricity and pay taxes. Once again, the politicians and a handful of well-connected operators benefit, and the rest of us pay the tab.

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