Conservative heavyweights have solar industry in their sights

The Los Angeles TImes ^ | 4/19/2014 | Evan Halper

[Beave Meister]

WASHINGTON — The political attack ad that ran recently in Arizona had some familiar hallmarks of the genre, including a greedy villain who hogged sweets for himself and made children cry.

But the bad guy, in this case, wasn't a fat-cat lobbyist or someone's political opponent.

He was a solar-energy consumer. Solar, once almost universally regarded as a virtuous, if perhaps over-hyped, energy alternative, has now grown big enough to have enemies.

The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and some of the nation's largest power companies have backed efforts in recent months to roll back state policies that favor green energy. The conservative luminaries have pushed campaigns in Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona, with the battle rapidly spreading to other states.

Alarmed environmentalists and their allies in the solar industry have fought back, battling the other side to a draw so far. Both sides say the fight is growing more intense as new states, including Ohio, South Carolina and Washington, enter the fray.

[Beave Meister]

I see liberals jumping out of windows....

[RayChuang88]

Here's the problem with solar power: you need huge swaths of land for solar power plant to generate a decent amount of power. And that could threaten desert environments, too.

No wonder why there is now a lot of major research into the molten salt reactor nuclear power plant, a reactor design that has just about none of the downsides of conventional nuclear reactors and there is enough thorium-232 on Earth and the Moon to power Earth's energy needs for tens of thousands of years at current consumption rates.

[mountainlion]

Solar powers biggest enemy is an accountant. They can not break even without massive subsidies. They are not as clean a source as they are being sold as.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Liberals are always the first to attack solar power after we’ve first spent millions of dollars on it and then someone finds out it endangers some local species of mosquito.

[allendale]

Green energy subsidies are a monumental squandering of capital and public tax dollars. If “green” technologies had economic promise or potential, private capital would be invested heavily. The reality is that everyone has to obey the laws of physics. “Green” energy (solar and wind) will always be a niche market and will never power a modern industrial society.

[cuban leaf]

Well, I have 32 acres, about 15 of it completely cleared. I could throw in 10,000 watts of cells on bare ground without even batting an eye, not to mention what I could put on my roof.

Seems to me that if every home had a roof of solar cells, this would be a form of “vast swaths of land” for solar.

But people would have too much freedom in such a situation, especially as it takes less and less power to live (led’s, microwave ovens, insulated homes, etc.).

[Da Coyote]

LAT Times...hmmmm,

Reference to Kock brothers, large utilities, greedy capitalists, all check.

References to Whorehouse Harry - nada.
References to crony capitalism - nada.
References to faked turtle problem - nada.
References to China’s hand in the solar plant - nada.
References to an old supreme court decision (I believe) that stated that the gubmit has no right to Nevada land - nada.

Yup, smells like liberals.
Stinks like liberals.
Sure glad we don’t have to step into liberals...although kicking them would be a very good start.

[MrB]

Liberals love any energy source that isn’t currently in use, or is viable, or is actually useful to support human life.

[Beave Meister]

Thanks Da Coyote, you just gave me a nice little belly laugh.

[Telepathic Intruder]

They’re generally only interested in perfect solutions that everyone agrees with and has no flaws whatsoever. Take capitalism. Not everyone is rich so throw it out because anything would be better, even if it’s nothing.

[grania]

I've wondered about the threat to desert environments, too. These solar panel environments have to have an impact on the desert environment, I'd think. I wouldn't even try to guess whether it will increase or decrease rain, heat, certain animal populations at the expense of others. Will kinds of vegetation thrive that will impact the fragile desert plantlife?

It's not like we can trust the treehuggers. They don't seem to care at at all about eagle-killing windmills.

[Erik Latranyi]

Solar panels kill birds also.

Just like your windows, some birds fly straight into their reflection and kill themselves.

But the large solar farms kill birds trying to fly over them from the radiated light and heat.

The dirty secret is that nobody is counting the bird deaths from wind and solar because gov’t is looking the other way.

One duck found dead near a refinery and fines start at $50,000.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of birds, bats and raptors are murdered by wind and solar.