Georgia Using Stimulus Bill Funds for Lamest Renewable Energy Grants Ever

Falling into the category of “I guess it’s better than nothing,” the state of Georgia has passed a bill that will use economic stimulus funds to provide retroactive grants to organizations that have already installed clean energy projects.

Why is this so lame? Thanks to the Georgia State Government, it’s just more of the same Republican policies that don’t work and aren’t an appropriate use of stimulative funds.

So say you live in Athens, Georgia and want to put some solar panels on your house. Can you apply for a grant to buy the panels and get professional help installing them? “Hell no! Put up those damn solar panels yourself, buddy, and then we’ll talk about reimbursing you. Oh yeah, and you need to own a business by the way. Once you start a company and install some solar panels– get back to us.”

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How is such a grant stimulative? It only puts money back into the pockets of companies who could afford it earlier or made the effort to install clean energy systems in the first place. Who’s to say they would use the money to develop more clean energy capacity?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this is one of the lamest renewable energy grants ever. It rewards those companies that didn’t need a helping hand in the first place. If anything, why couldn’t the grants both reward retroactive and future projects? And why can’t they also be distributed to actual citizens rather than just companies?

Way to go Georgia! Economy stimulated!

Photo Credit: Sea of Legs on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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