I also like to know who slipped in the last minute carveout for Big Green Energy.
It’s simple: You have Republican House members whose constituents rely on white-people welfare for their livelihoods. In some states this welfare takes the form of massive defense spending. In other states it takes the form of subsidies for useless crap like solar panels and wind turbines.
If there is anything that really aggravates me, it is this idea that green energy will accomplish much more than increased cost for less reliability. How stupid can we be relying on this type of unreliable energy while paying more? Then there’s also the credits for purchase of a new EV. Why should there be a credit for a new vehicle that is simply overpriced & overrated? Sure, with certain other considerations(like having a charging station) an EV would meet my driving requirements. It would also deplete my limited bank account & this doesn’t even include increased taxes & insurance on the thing. The older vehicle I drive more than meets my needs & I daresay it’s at least as reliable or even more so than a new EV. The older car also makes it much more feasible for being able to accomplish long trips with as few stops as I might consider. If we are going to have new technology at the very least it needs to be better than what we had.
Agreed. And I hate all tax credits / subsidies for the "green" energy stuff. But if I had to pick my battles, I'd rather get rid of the big ones (the subsidizing energy farms) than the small ones at the individual level (income tax credit if you buy solar panels for your home). If this article is correct, it looks like they kept in the crony version of the green money but not the little guy solar tax credit.
It doesn't matter much to the individual solar buyer anyway. All the solar tax credit does is artificially inflate the price you pay upfront anyway, only for the govt to give you that extra back (when you file your taxes). So the individual solar tax credit didn't help anyway -- it was just a tax payer give away to the "green" companies, using the solar buyer as a kind of pass-through agent.
But the solar farm subsidy is way worse and way more dangerous. It's bigger money (crony capitalism to whoever gets the contract) and it makes the grid less stable because that version of solar is meant to power the grid, not power an individual's home. The grid should be based on nothing but dependable sources (hydrocarbons and maybe some hydro electric generation).