At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally itâs a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels. For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they donât need back to electric utilities. So theyâve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive. Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As The Los Angeles Times reported recently, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/o...ack-on-solar-energy.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
The solar companies couldn't even make money when the democratic admin threw hundreds of millions or maybe a more at solar firms which promptly went bankrupt. Solyndra? They can't even make money when subsidized. How bad is that? So their defenders make the most insane defenses of the industry by attacking the kochs. Josh Brown called the kochs demented for saying the solars were a liberal operation. What else would you call an industry that has govt money being thrown at it by a democratic admin, and, as stated, still can't cut the mustard in the marketplace. And those who received the gov't funds had gov't ties to the democrats, too. The liberals truly are obsessed with kochs.
"Itâs [Obamacare's] the first time in this countryâs history that we have actually taxed health care. We used to treat it like food, that people would die without it." -- Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
Solar panel $/watts value is coming down at a fast rate. Currently it seems like one of the best investments possible for somebody in a sunny clime. The breakeven is only a year or two. Possibly what happens with these subsidized ventures is the people get a few hundred millions in the bank and they say "why work, I'm rich already".
Solar accounts for 1% of US electrical power. Coal accounts for 40% +. Between the Koch's "war" on solar and Obama's even bigger REAL war on coal. I'm far more worried about Obama.
I was wondering about that. I moved to a sunny part of san diego and all these marketing people were knocking on our door. They all wanted to lease the panels to us or sell us the electricity from panels they installed on our roof. No one was just trying to sell them to us like they had in the past. I got suspicious that perhaps a purchase and install would be pretty cheap.
I live in Oklahoma and use solar power exclusively in my barn, lighting and tank heaters in the winter . My first knowledge was a few days ago concerning the new law, so far it's my understanding that the law applies to any new solar construction, existing is grandfathered. The reasoning here is individuals tapping into and profiting off a grid (feeding surplus electricity back into the grid for a credit) which they did not pay or are liable for it's upkeep ... although it's miniscule in the overall amount of electricity, the utility companies have a valid point. I'm trying to learn if the law only applies if you feed back onto the grid, a house totally off the grid may be exempt.
I can understand the justification for electric utilities to charge solar customers for line use and infrastructure, however, this fair reason is not the reason the Koch bros and friends are pushing for these kind of charges.