Posted on 11/13/2019 4:51:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Without a doubt, President Trump's pro-growth policies have resulted in a booming economy with unemployment rates at historic lows. This extraordinary era of job creation has been made possible in part thanks to the Trump Administration's laser focus on slashing regulations for energy producers and long overdue reductions to the burdensome tax code. However, to keep the economy flourishing, the D.C. swamp needs more draining, and the first target should be to eliminate an unfair tax credit that only still exists thanks to crony capitalism and renewable energy lobbyists.
Temporary tax incentives can encourage innovation but must include mandates requiring businesses to stand on their own. Fifteen years ago, the Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) was created when solar energy was an emerging market. Now, the solar energy sector is experiencing explosive growth and is about to out-compete natural gas on the cost of energy, thanks to endless taxpayer-funded support and local government mandates.
With extensive foreign investment in solar manufacturing facilities in the United States and now renewable energy accounts for more than one-third of all new generating capacity. In fact, there is so much activity in the solar energy sector, the market has been flooded with cut-rate solar panels, largely thanks to China which stole intellectual property worth billions of dollars. Times have certainly changed, and there is no reason to extend generous solar tax subsides.
Interestingly, the ITC was set to expire in 2019, until Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and five congressmen from the West and East coasts have submitted a proposal to extend for five years, with the hopes of House passage just before Christmas recess. Why would members of Congress be so interested in continuing green energy tax subsidies, which mostly benefit the wealthy? As left-wing Vox.com admitted, clean energy tax credits are highly regressive, with a majority benefiting the top quintile of income earners.
If you are one of those Tesla-driving coastal elites and want to power your home by solar energy with the current price tag of $22,000 for a typical 6-kilowatt residential rooftop system, you should have the freedom to do so. But the tax code and D.C. lobbyists should not force your neighbors to pay for it.
Instead of focusing on special tax credits or obsessing over impeachment, Congress would be wise to continue the tax reform after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. President Trump's signature tax-cut legislation lowered rates removed many individual carve-outs. Extending this solar tax credit would violate the spirit of this major tax-cutting victory.
Congress should change the arbitrary way it offers energy tax credits. Washington, D.C. bureaucrats should not be empowered to pick winners and losers based on political reasons. It's time for Congress to act and stop solar government subsidies.
A better idea - stop manipulating the free market in general.
The writer is lazy. He digs around in the bottom of his desk drawer and finds this topic
He certainly knows that it is more likely that PBS will be defunded before the energy tax credit grail
This is Keynesian economics combined with fascism at its worst ... building sh!t regardless of whether or not it even works in the long run.
Yep, scrap the subsidies, Under current law they begin a slow years long PHASEOUT under current law. We should accelerate that phaseout or, as a minimum, at least continue to phaseout as provided under current law.
Below is a link with some extracted language explaining the phaseout..
“The ITC is a federal tax subsidy that, in its current capacity, gives solar system owners a 30% return on a solar project’s total tax liability in any market segment. In 2020 the ITC is slated to drop to 26%, 22% in 2021 and in 2022 it will decrease to a 10% subsidy for commercial and utility markets, and zero for residential, indefinitely.”
This is a PERFECT program to be done at the state level. If the states want to do it, let them, as it’s not too expensive and states like Alaska and the western part of Washington get virtually NOTHING from solar power. If they want to be idiots...let them, but don’t punish honest people in Kansas because of it.
I’d love to see the subsidy dropped...it would save the farmland in MA that is being gobbled up by this plague.
Scrap every tax credit. They are artificial wealth generation.
Rich farmlands were sacrificed and the farmer has an income for life and beyond and doesn't have to do a damn thing.
Bottom line....The Town loses.
“We have a huge farm under construction in our area. The problem is....it doesn’t benefit the Town in which it lies, it goes right to the grid.
Rich farmlands were sacrificed and the farmer has an income for life and beyond and doesn’t have to do a damn thing.
Bottom line....The Town loses.”
You’re lucky. They rammed the damn ugly windmills down our throats in the Midwest. By the thousands.
Stupid because....we have an opportunity for natural gas via fracking and the damn politicians say....no way. They're just plain stupid....and it's all about money payoffs.
Especially Mexifornia, who now mandates that all new housing have solar panels
Watch Newsom scream the loudest
Won’t happen in Iowa. They are committed to so-called renewable energy, especially that inefficient eyesore they call wind power. Had to laugh when I read in the DM Register that the broken blades on the turbines end up in landfills. Ooops...
Oil is created deep within the Earth and works it’s way to the surface.
The Earth is benefited by us taking out the oil.
The Earth creates more oil than we use.
Just like water. No matter how much we drink, there will always be more water on the Earth than we can use.
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