First off, I don’t think there is a climate crisis. I think the proponents of the “crisis” are basically in a cult since whenever you bring up a solution, the answer is a definitive “no” and then they reflexively say “solar/wind”.
Then they go on to tell you about “8 million scientists” and “everyone knows” and “we have to do our part”. When you tell them that none of the projections that have been made about “climate change” now the “climate crisis” and when it first came on the scene “man-made global warming”, have come true they stare back at you blankly.
I always see if I can work up some internal methane at that moment just for good measure. Like a cow.
But, at the same time, I am a capitalist. As Red Bernie and Big Chief Elizabeth will tell you, capitalists are always just working the system and not creating value, right? So it is certain if I can work the system to get something to my advantage, I will do it. Hence, I have been investigating putting solar panels on my roof at our home in Las Vegas. Vegas gets a lot of sun and NV Energy has been raising rates like crazy. Up 45% this year to sixteen cents per kilowatt and all the rate increases aren’t baked into the current price yet.
When we rehabbed the house, I looked at installing solar and it was not profitable. Rates were a lot lower and so were the government subsidies. That’s changed.
It turns out, it does make some financial sense for me to put solar on my house. The payback period for me is down to 5-6 years. It used to be 10 years or more. The warrantied productive life of the system is a minimum of 25 years. The solar panel industry is heavily subsidized, so costs for panels have come down and their efficiency has gone up slightly. Many companies are discounting the panels and equipment deeply. The real cost of the installation is labor. It’s 54% of the cost.
Does anyone think the Biden Administration won’t be putting the squeeze on energy supplies causing energy utilities to raise rates in the time it has left to control the Executive Branch of government? It’s part of the plan to make solar look like a good alternative to natural gas and nuclear which are both clean energy sources as well. Nattie gas and Nuke have more bang for the buck when it comes to power as well. Sort of like comparing pure gasoline with ethanol. But, don’t tell that to an Iowa politician of any political party.
When I consulted with a couple of solar providers, including Tesla, I found out you could only put 98% of your power needs on your roof in my home state of Nevada because of regulations. Hence, you will always be paying NV Energy for at least 2% along with the applicable taxes.
There are issues with putting too much energy into the grid because the electrical grid must stay balanced.
But, I thought we were in a climate crisis. I am being told that every day. Whenever there is a raindrop that hits someone unexpectedly from the sky, it has to be that something is wrong with the climate. I have been told that there are too many people on the earth.
Shouldn’t we humans be allowed to put as much capacity for solar on our respective roofs if we want to pay for it?
Shouldn’t we be generating massive amounts of green energy and doing our part?
Why is the tax credit so small? If a little tax credit is fine, why not go full speed ahead and give a 100% tax credit?
At least when we are finally exterminated due to our total misuse of natural resources and ignorance, the roaches that are left to rebuild society will have access to clean energy and won’t follow the fossil fuel path those damn cavemen put us on all those years ago.
Let’s add some logic to this satirical post. The answer to the climate crisis is nuclear because nuclear energy is the cheapest and greenest energy per kilowatt out there. It doesn’t break the backs and budgets of poorer people who need the same access to energy that the Champagne Socialists on Martha’s Vineyard need. There are significant costs to building a nuclear power plant because the red tape and gigantic unnecessary regulations that have been put in place by needless government bureaucrats have created those costs. But, nuclear is the only way forward and we ought to have been building nuclear power plants like crazy since the 1970s. Except, a bunch of Hollywood movies like The China Syndrome and Silkwood scared the bejeezus out of everyone with made-up facts.
It’s $14 billion to $34 Billion to build a nuclear power plant depending on a lot of factors. Knowing that gives us our bogey number. The governments, both state and federal, should be giving tax rebates of up to $34 billion per potential nuclear power plant.
Since we are in danger of incinerating and killing mass quantities of humans due to human-induced climate change….it is a crisis after all. Shouldn’t we be doing something superhuman and otherworldly to combat it? Where is Paul Krugman when I need him?
Here is my suggestion.
Governments should be giving 100% tax credits to people putting in solar. For every dollar that is spent, you should get a dollar deducted from your taxes. Additionally, if I was a wealthy benevolent person or a profitable business, I could offset my federal and state tax liability dollar for dollar by purchasing solar systems for people that couldn’t afford them. Why isn’t California giving a state rebate of 100% of dollars spent for dollars taxed for installing solar?
Formula: Spend $30,000 on your solar system, decrease your tax bill by $30,000 and if you don’t pay that much in tax, you get to carry forward the decrease until it’s used up. Also, you get to write off 100% of any interest you pay if you finance the job.
Remember, this is the moral equivalent of war. It’s a CRISIS they say. We are all gonna die and the streets will be filled with water. Polar ice caps will melt, and instead of walking to school uphill both ways through the snow as we did back in the day, our poor children will have to wade through flooded streets against a raging current uphill both ways while doing it in a hurricane. Polar Bears will die.
By the way, notice politicians have no trouble spending money on wars. For global warming, they tell you to do your part by wearing an extra sweater in the winter or go naked with a fan on in the summer, but they spend like crazy on big stupid projects that do nothing except put money in the pockets of their cronies. My 100% tax rebate idea empowers you, and they would never want to do that.
We’d be generating massive amounts of clean energy and pumping it into the grid if we all got free solar on our rooftops. Of course, government receipts would take a gigantic hit, but gosh darn it this is an emergency.
The life of the planet depends on it because….because….science or something like that. Excuse me now. I am jetting down the street to see my colleague to play a little tennis. Afterward, we will solve all these problems for you over a couple of bloody’s before my mid-afternoon Pimm’s Cup at the croquet club.
To the left climate is an emergency. They need an emergency to destroy the basis of modern civilization - high density energy sources. Nuclear power is anathema to them because it supports modern civilization.
Electricity isn't a commodity like coal or gravel that can be piled up and used when desired. A kwh generated at noon on a day in June isn't that same as a kwh needed at 7PM that same evening, much less a kwh needed at 10PM on a day in December. When people claim they are 100% solar because they are selling power back to the grid when the weather gods make it available to them, whether the grid needs it then or not...and getting it back whenever they want it....and the total kwh bought and sold nets out to zero...they are still imposing capital costs on the grid based on capacity required for their total demand.