NYT Editorial - "The Koch Attack on Solar Energy"

[TomCADem]

In a way you can see why Koch industries is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into buying their handpicked GOP candidates while also spending millions in attack ads on Democrats. The fact of the matter is that they want Americans to be dependent on fossil fuels notwithstanding the fact that this hurts the environment and causes America to be dependent on foreign oil. It s borderline treasonous where these companies are actively working to increase the USA's dependency on fossil fuels in order to increase their profits.

At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels.

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

* * *

The coal producers’ motivation is clear: They see solar and wind energy as a long-term threat to their businesses. That might seem distant at the moment, when nearly 40 percent of the nation’s electricity is still generated by coal, and when less than 1 percent of power customers have solar arrays. (It is slightly higher in California and Hawaii.) But given new regulations on power-plant emissions of mercury and other pollutants, and the urgent need to reduce global warming emissions, the future clearly lies with renewable energy. In 2013, 29 percent of newly installed generation capacity came from solar, compared with 10 percent in 2012.

Renewables are good for economic as well as environmental reasons, as most states know. (More than 143,000 now work in the solar industry.) Currently, 43 states require utilities to buy excess power generated by consumers with solar arrays. This practice, known as net metering, essentially runs electric meters backward when power flows from rooftop solar panels into the grid, giving consumers a credit for the power they generate but don’t use.

[MohRokTah]

1. Every solar panel installed takes money out of Koch pockets

These greedy bastards have declared war on the sun and the wind.

[ladjf]

2. They have declared war on the American People. nt

[TomCADem]

3. No Wonder Koch Supported Clive Bundy...

...they want to keep the American people dependent on them. They should know about enslavement.

[G_j]

4. they have declared war on the planet also

I think the proper word is, "evil".

[suffragette]

5. Highly recommended