Senator Attacks Solar Energy Industry
In a blistering attack, Nevada’s Republican senator John Ensign has launched an offensive against solar energy lobbyists, ahead of a crucial vote on renewable energy tax credits.
Breaking ranks with the the state’s increasingly important solar industry, Ensign said that efforts by the Solar Energy Industry Association to force his hand on tax breaks had in fact had the opposite effect of “personally alienating” him and other senators.
In a scathing letter, later released to the press, Ensign accused the lobby group of squandering goodwill by accusing him of favouring “billionaire hedge fund managers” over job creation in Nevada. Indicating the depth of his feelings on the issue, he went on to say “It is rare to have such overwhelming bipartisan support in today’s political climate but the solar industry had it and your association’s leadership squandered it.”
Nevada solar executives had privately become increasingly unhappy with the Senator’s record of voting against bills containing the tax credits. Ensign said that he opposed the bills because the funds for tax breaks would have been raised by increasing the burden on the oil and gas industry. Earlier this spring, he co-sponsored an alternative approach, calling for tax credits without the corresponding offsets. It made it through the Senate by a vote of 88-8, but has become bogged down in the House.
Last Tuesday, the senate voted to block progress on the Consumer First Energy Act and the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act. However, with a new vote expected this week, the rift is likely to dismay observers hopeful of progress on the hotly disputed tax credits bill. A block would be particularly damaging to the renewables industry, which wants to make investment decisions against a background of long-term stability in renewable energy policy.
Other posts on the U.S. Senate and Renewable Energy Policy:
“Senate to Vote on Renewables as Early as Today”
“Senate Passes Renewable Energy Tax Credits. Shouldn’t I Be More Excited?”
“Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 Lacks Support”
[...] Senator Attacks Solar Energy Industry In a blistering attack, Nevada
Obviously the Solar Energy Industry has not greased his palm as well as the Oil Industry. It’s a pay to play world in Nevada and clearly John Ensign has gotten his rewards to protect the oil industry. What a lame-ass excuse to block promoting a new industry that will move the US towards energy independence; ‘efforts by the Solar Energy Industry Association to force his hand on tax breaks had in fact had the opposite effect of “personally alienating” him and other senators’. He needs to stop whining about his hurt feelings. He needs to stop protecting the interests of big oil. He needs to do the right thing for his State and the Country. Otherwise, he needs to get the heck out of the way so someone with some real leadership ability can take us into the 21 century.
What a baby…
Maybe Senator Larry Craig can console him.
I find it interesting that tax credits for Big Oil figure out to be $5.65 while Ethanol creds are about 51 cents, and the blender gets the credit, which is in most cases, Big Oil!
This does not count the “Subsidy” Big Oil gets to guarantee oil coming in from the Middle East and elsewhere, since If the military budget was for only protecting our nation, it would be about 10% of the current Defense budget. It costs a bundle to project power half way around the world.
Our national Debt is the result. The price we pay at the pump for gasoline is only a down payment. http://tinyurl.com/56rrda There are answers.
We should end all subsidies to energy.
Oil would be behind alternatives at this point. Here is why:
http://roberto-de-sonora.blogspot.com/
Listen to David Blume, author of “Alcohol can be a Gas” on 2 alternative fuels in abundant sustainable quantities, using waste we already throw away, enough to replace all gasoline, if necessary, here: http://network76.com/
Conservatives are partially right when they complain about government being the problem- it’s CONSERVATIVES in government who are the problem.
Vote em all out, replace them with democrats. I’m sure ALL Republicans aren’t corrupt, but it’s too much trouble figuring out who is among that %0.0001. Just vote them all out- whoever can manage to stay out of prison after all the war profiteering and crime is accounted for can maybe join whatever new political party might rise from the ashes of the Republican criminal organization.
Econ 101: Correlation of Supply, Demand, and Price
It’s amazing to me how many people in America, including politicians, do not understand this most basic of universal laws. This is NOT a rule of the government or a rule of mind, but a LAW of the universe like gravity and time. It works regardless of the situation you put it to. Communists think they can legislate it out of existance, but you can’t.
When the Pilgrims first landed in Massachuesetts, they set up a COMMUNIST system of economics. They had all farm land in common. They worked the land together and harvested and shared the produce equally. The result: the farmland produced little, the colony starved, and less than half survived until Spring. (Sounds like the USSR in 1990.) The Pilgrims changed their approach. Each person was given an equal plot of land to farm from which they were to work to survive the next winter. “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” That fall, they had a bumper crop and noone starved that winter. The first Thanksgiving was celebrated.
Any resource that is finite (such as time and money) succumbs to the law of supply, demand, and price. The solar industry is NOT price competitive with other options at the present time. In a few instances, solar and wind are the only viable option (off-grid electricity). Government taxes are interfering with the market to artificially change the price for a larger market. The low supply of solar cells do not meet the high demand in its current limited sphere and are thus expensive. The current supply of gasoline is also insufficient to meet present gas demand and thus gasoline and diesel fuels are rising in price.
Over 76% of the profits of the oil and gas industry is re-invested back into the industry. Having been a former employee of a well services company, I can easily vouch for how EXPENSIVE it is to do this work. Millions of dollars changed hands from subcontractor to subcontractor on a daily basis just to drill and bring online each well on land, even more for offshore wells.
By comparison, Microsoft and other software companies make a MUCH higher margin with much less investment. With Microsoft’s monopoly, they do whatever they want, even today after the 90s DOJ anti-trust trial. Comparing Google and Exxon, who’s got greater “windfall profits”?
Those of us that really want Solar, Wind and other rewnewables to take off and receive the proper government support (like most of Europe) must take an incremental approach – lets get our credits (federal feed-in tariff credits for utilities to buy the power at a premium would be the best solution) entrenched first. It’s dumb to try to punish the extraction industries (oil, natual gas, etc) in the same bill as this causes people like Ensign and others who represent extraction interest to fight it – witness the positive Senate vote when those provisions came out! This is election year politics from both sides…take out the penalties and get it done! We’ll get them later!
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