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Fox News Claims Solar Won't Work in America Because It's Not Sunny Like Germany
Slate ^ | 2/8/13 | Will Ooremus

Posted on 02/10/2013 10:29:22 AM PST by OKRA2012

Thanks to Fox News and its expert commentators, millions of Americans now understand the real, hidden reason why Germany's solar-energy industry is so much further along than ours. Turns out it has nothing to do with the fact that Germany's government has long supported the industry far more generously, with policies like feed-in tariffs that stimulate investment in green technologies. No, the real reason is much simpler, explained a trio of journalists on Fox & Friends: It's always sunny in Germany!

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 02/10/2013 10:29:27 AM PST by OKRA2012
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To: OKRA2012

Gee, any 8th AF bombadier or navigator would certainly agree.


2 posted on 02/10/2013 10:31:57 AM PST by xkaydet65
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To: OKRA2012
Wrong question.
3 posted on 02/10/2013 10:34:09 AM PST by jimfree (In November 2016 my 12 y/o granddaughter will have more quality exec experience than Barack Obama)
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To: OKRA2012

And here in Michigan all those solar panels would be covered with snow right now.......


4 posted on 02/10/2013 10:34:24 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (Jab her with a harpoon or just throw her from the train......)
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To: OKRA2012

It won’t work in America because we have a bunch of corrupt politicians who give money to political contributors to start bogus solar companies and push out the market from doing it itself.


5 posted on 02/10/2013 10:37:00 AM PST by mnehring
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To: OKRA2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/26/us-climate-germany-solar-idUSBRE84P0FI20120526

...The incentives through the state-mandated “feed-in-tariff” (FIT) are not without controversy, however. The FIT is the lifeblood for the industry until photovoltaic prices fall further to levels similar for conventional power production.

Utilities and consumer groups have complained the FIT for solar power adds about 2 cents per kilowatt/hour on top of electricity prices in Germany that are already among the highest in the world with consumers paying about 23 cents per kw/h.

German consumers pay about 4 billion euros ($5 billion) per year on top of their electricity bills for solar power, according to a 2012 report by the Environment Ministry.

Critics also complain growing levels of solar power make the national grid less stable due to fluctuations in output...


6 posted on 02/10/2013 10:38:21 AM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: mnehring

You got that right. Money laundering at it’s worst.


7 posted on 02/10/2013 10:42:09 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: jjotto

There you may have a good argument against solar power.

But, to claim that Germany has a great deal more sun than the US is asinine.


8 posted on 02/10/2013 10:42:56 AM PST by OKRA2012
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To: jjotto
A U.S. based solar manufacturer tells me that Germany is cutting substantially the subsidies.

"Springtime for Chermany, Winter fur der rest ov de vurld."
9 posted on 02/10/2013 10:44:11 AM PST by kenavi (Lost the country? Win your state.)
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To: OKRA2012

Actually their bigger point was Germany is considerably smaller. But the bigger point is that solar is just as uneconomical in Germany as it is anywhere else!!! Just easier to hide the mass subsidies!!


10 posted on 02/10/2013 10:45:49 AM PST by ontap
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To: OKRA2012

Will Oremus is obsessed with Fox News

11 posted on 02/10/2013 10:45:55 AM PST by kcvl
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To: OKRA2012

Well, FNC is lurching more and more to the left. Expect more stories like these from lib and RINO talking heads.


12 posted on 02/10/2013 10:46:51 AM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: jjotto

Faux News is a joke, so they throw a bone to conservatives every once in awhile.


13 posted on 02/10/2013 10:50:07 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: OKRA2012

Typical ad hominem attack that passes for commentary these days.

Ignore the train wreck that is solar energy with government collusion, and go with: Ha, ha, Fox News is stupid!


14 posted on 02/10/2013 10:50:39 AM PST by Rinnwald
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To: Rinnwald

I agree, but Fox opened themselves up with it, plenty of reasons to oppose solar without staying stupid things like that.


15 posted on 02/10/2013 10:51:46 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: kenavi

Well, that was the plan, but...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-solar-subsidies-to-remain-high-with-consumers-paying-the-price-a-842595.html

...Solar subsidies cost German consumers billions of dollars a year and are widely regarded as inefficient. Even environmentalists are concerned that Berlin’s focus on solar comes at the detriment of other renewables. But the solar industry has a powerful lobby, and politicians have proven powerless to resist...

...[new environment minister Peter] Altmaier’s concessions to the solar industry are all the more baffling given that the German government had announced intentions to cut subsidies significantly, making plans to reduce the construction of photovoltaic systems to a reasonable level.

And Altmaier himself, in his previous role as whip for the Christian Democrats in German parliament, warned that subsidies for the solar industry were bringing about “billions in additional costs, every week, every month.”


16 posted on 02/10/2013 10:52:17 AM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: OKRA2012

Agreed. I lived there for two years. Yes, they have sunshine, but they also have lots to overcast and rain. It is sunnier than Washington state.


17 posted on 02/10/2013 10:53:52 AM PST by JaguarXKE (Welcome to the new America.)
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To: OKRA2012
What Slate left out:

The reason it works in Germany is because they pay triple the rate per kilowatt hour than we do in the US.

0.25983 Euros = about 35cents per kWh

Here in Maryland, we pay around 9 cents cents per kWh.

18 posted on 02/10/2013 10:56:58 AM PST by icwhatudo (Low taxes and less spending in Sodom and Gomorrah is not my idea of a conservative victory)
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To: OKRA2012

Will Oremus - must have gotten an email from crazy David Brock at George Soros funded Mrdia Matters since he sent them out to all the left wing media about this.

Press Here

"But I incorrectly stated that the chief difference between the U.S. and Germany’s success with solar installations had to do with climate differences on a "Fox and Friends" appearance on Feb. 7. In fact, the difference come down more to subsidies and political priorities and has nothing to with sunshine."

"The fact that the solar industry is so heavily supported by government funds does not doom the solar industry.  In fact, this type of seed money is very commonplace everywhere -- from Silicon Valley to the energy sector.  In fact, according to Greentech Media, every energy source in the last 400 years of U.S. history has been subsidized."

Shibani Joshi joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in September 2007 as a reporter. Joshi brings experience in investment banking, strategy and business development, as she began her career as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. 

19 posted on 02/10/2013 10:58:06 AM PST by kcvl
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To: OKRA2012
Which is dumber: this nonsense, or a CNN anchor blaming Global Warming for an asteroid fly-by?
20 posted on 02/10/2013 10:59:48 AM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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