What if solar energy received the same subsides as fossil fuels

[FSogol]

From Roger Ebert's Journal
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/science-and-not/what-if-solar-energy-received-.html


Apologies if it was posted before.

[slackmaster]

1. I'm getting a $5,400 federal tax credit for my solar project this year

And I'd like to personally thank everyone who pays US federal taxes for chipping in to help me out.

[supernova]

2. I would love it if we did

I'd go solar in a heartbeat.

edit: Even with current subsidy levels the initial outlay for a system is still too steep, which is why I'm out of the market, alas. I need more than a tax credit. I need a way to perhaps lease to own at cost. Pay for it over say five or six years.

[razorman]

3. The main reason we don't have abundant solar energy now is that

they haven't figured a way to put a meter on the sun.

[mother earth]

4. Absolutely, switch to solar! K & R

[DirkGently]

5. A great point that should be brought up more often.

[Gregorian]

6. What if lots of American voters and politicians didn't have shit for brains?

We'd also be on the metric system. A way easier system. And we'd have spent money on battery research. And infrastructure.

I don't have the time for typing. But in the 80's I had a material science professor who had spent a month or so roaming the US with the DOT, taking photos of the bridges that were deteriorating. The 80's!!!

[FSogol]

8. In the early 1990's I inspected deteriorating bridges for VDOT

Not one was ever repaired/replaced.

[Gregorian]

11. Exactly.

Problems of corrosion are systemic and very expensive.

I honestly think it's all about military spending now. That's a lot of voodoo money going down the drain. I say for the money, let them have us if they want us. Spend the money on productive things.

But you knew all of that.

[Snotcicles]

7. What if Solar and fossil fuels split the subsides equally? nt

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, FSogol.

[Starboard Tack]

10. Let's hope common sense kicks in soon.

We live off the grid, so no subsidies, but just knowing that we aren't dependent on a decadent infrastructure is very refreshing.

If we kicked in to solar/wind half of what we pay to subsidize fossil fuels, this country would be back on top with a firm footing, instead of being on the brink of a very slippery slope into a new dark age.

[immoderate]

12. Highway robbery!

--imm

[Zax2me]

13. You get fraud-failure. FBI raids bankrupt solar venture Solyndra

Investigation comes just days after the Obama-backed solar panel maker files for bankrupcy -
http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/09/technology/solyndra_fbi
The company's factory was built with a $535 million loan backed by the Department of Energy

[swilton]

14. or as agro-business, the pharmaceutical industry, the

health insurance industry or the military?