The government should terminate special billion-dollar tax credits and subsidies for solar energy programs because they are too costly and have failed to build the solar energy industry as promised, according to a new watchdog report.
itizens Against Government Waste laid out its case in a new report released this week titled “The Sun Should Set on Solar Socialism.”
“Publications and public remarks by renewable energy industry proponents are replete with allusions to the ITC (investment tax credit) as essential for these energy sources to vie effectively with fossil fuels, create jobs and provide a fantastic return on investment,” the report stated. Basically, “the tax credits
are all things to all people.”
But the reality, the report claims, is that solar energy only accounts for 1 percent of the country’s electricity generation. On top of that, there isn’t a lot of credible information to support that future solar technologies will suffer without subsidies.
Tax expenditures through subsides have cost $13.7 billion from 2004-1025.
Energy subsidies have been in place since the 1970s but they didn’t take off until Congress passed the 2005 Energy Policy Act. The legislation significantly changed the country’s energy policies by creating commercial and residential tax incentives and loan guarantees for several types of energy production.
The report concludes that not only have efforts to subsidize solar failed to lower costs, it has instead led to massive waste, fraud and mismanagement.
“Perhaps these results were inevitable when the government created a new, lucrative program and provided little accountability,” the report said.
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Unfortunately, no matter how many reports of government waste are published, we can't trust Congress to enact any significant change. They simply don't have any incentive to spend less money. Article V of the Constitution offers a solution. By calling a Convention of States, the people--acting through their state legislatures--can go around Congress and pass the kind of spending limits we need to get our country back on track.
