It is like exchanging US Dollar bills for Mexican Pesos at parity - this time, from Watchdog:
Chinese-owned NH solar project costs ratepayers $1.22M
New Hampshire utility ratepayers will pay a Taiwanese company $1.22 million to build the state’s largest solar installation so that a small town can save about $500,000 in power costs over the life of the project.
Taiwan’s Walsin Lihwa, parent company of Borrego Solar, will use Chinese-made solar panels in the 3.5-acre project, which is supposed to be finished in July. It will supply power to several municipal buildings in the area but only some of the time: the town of Peterborough (population: 6,284) gets only 197 sunny days per year.
“What a great project,” deadpanned David Kreutzer, a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation. “A $1.2 million grant allows Peterborough to save $500,000! And that doesn’t include the cross-subsidies of net metering.” Net metering requires all other ratepayers to cover the fixed costs of electricity distribution so that solar users have a safety net when the sun doesn’t shine.
In an unusual feature of the deal, Borrego Solar will retain ownership of the system. That allows the company to claim a 30 percent federal tax credit — along with $55,000 in yearly renewable energy credits paid for by local ratepayers.
Geeezzzzz - if Borrego was going to offer me a deal like this, I would at least expect a ring and a date first.
Again, this is not about saving the planet. This is not about developing cheap alternative energy sources.
This is about large corporations spinning off small feisty little puppet companies who will come in and DO SOMETHING but this activity will be subsidized by our tax dollars and there is little or nothing that we, as citizens, can do about it. Meanwhile, the parent company makes a lot of money. Our money.
We are not being represented by our elected officials. The politicians in Washington are in the pay of the lobbyists. They are the 1% - both parties.
Hat tip to Don Surber for the link. His series on Exceptional Americans is a great read - some amazing people you never heard of...
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