Economics Can’t Support the New “Solar Economy”

Kevin Glass / Townhall Columnist

What if I told you there’s a cronyist program designed to be irresistible to politicians that not very many people are familiar with? This is a policy that combines American manufacturing, high-tech startups, Silicon Valley billionaires, “green energy,” and enough layers of complexity to hide how these cronyists are fleecing Americans.

Welcome to the world of “solar leasing.” This is a new business model pioneered by a handful of solar panel companies in the last couple of decades in which the solar company “leases” panels to homeowners – sometimes covering installation and other associated up-front costs – in order to provide and sell solar energy to customers.

A key variable in this business model is what is called “net metering.” In a lot of jurisdictions, homes with solar panels that are also connected to the traditional power grid get to sell their unused solar energy back to the local utility company for a profit. In fact, in many places, the power companies are required to buy back excess solar energy. And, as you can imagine, this comes with political fights.

In places with net metering mandates, there are local regulatory authorities that set prices at which the power companies are required to buy-back this excess solar power. Naturally, power companies fight for lower prices to be set on these net metering mandates. Solar panel owners and solar panel companies fight for higher rates.

Quid Pro Quo: Clinton Foundation Gave Money To For-Profit Company Run By Clinton Friends

Matt Vespa / Townhall Tipsheet

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If you ever have seen Godfather Part II, you know the line by Johnny Ola “Hyman Roth always makes money for his partners…Hyman Roth is the only one left, because he always made money for his partners.” Well, that ethos seems to be the same when it comes to the Clintons and their Foundation, except they give money to their partners, who also happen to be their friends, who also happen to run for-profit companies. Under federal law, non-profit, tax-exempt organizations aren’t suppose to act on the private interests, but these are the Clintons. They play by their own rules.

The Clinton Foundation is back in the news. This time for doling out $2 million to a for-profit company run by friends of the family, who also got an endorsement from Bill Clinton for a federal grant from the Department of Energy (via WSJ):

The Clinton Global Initiative, which arranges donations to help solve the world’s problems, set up a financial commitment that benefited a for-profit company part-owned by people with ties to the Clintons, including a current and a former Democratic official and a close friend of former President Bill Clinton. 

The $2 million commitment was placed on the agenda for a September 2010 conference of the Clinton Global Initiative at Mr. Clinton’s urging, according to a document from the period and people familiar with the matte

Mr. Clinton also personally endorsed the company, Energy Pioneer Solutions Inc., to then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu for a federal grant that year, said people with knowledge of the endorsement.
[…]

Surprise! After secret talks, tiny Vermont town gets 100 Muslim migrants
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

“Louras made no apologies for excluding the public from the planning. If the proposal had been floated earlier, the mayor said, the debate would have become ‘about them’ — meaning the Syrians, their culture, and possible links to terrorism — instead of whether the city had the means to accommodate the refugees.” Yes, and we […]
 
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Bill making Sharia illegal defense in SC courts defeated

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

Sharia as a defense in America. The islamization of America. There is no more brutal or extreme ideology on the face of the earth than the sharia.

“Bill making Sharia illegal defense in SC courts defeated,” By Robert Spencer, May 12, 2016:

“I couldn’t, in good conscience, support what it represents,” Sabb said. “A law like this sends us backwards.”

Yes. What could be more forward-thinking than stonings for adultery, amputations for theft, murder of apostates, and the institutionalized subjugation of women and non-Muslims? It’s the wave of the future!

“Ban on Sharia law defense in S.C. courts dies at the Statehouse,” by Maya T. Prabhu, Post and Courier, May 11 2016:

COLUMBIA — A bill that would have made the...

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