The Alternative-Energy Scam

The idea that one can save energy by using tax credits is a scam perpetrated on the taxpayer.

I acknowledge the fact that sometimes alternative energy is necessary, such as a home or cabin located miles from the nearest power line. Other than that, most, if not all, alternative forms of energy (solar, wind, ethanol, etc) require significant taxpayer subsidies to be viable. In 2007, American taxpayers subsidized government-preferred energy sources to the tune of nearly $17 billion!

The notion that these subsidies are free money is naive and selfish. Somebody else had to work (ie give up his personal time) to produce the funds to subsidize that solar panel on your roof and that hybrid car in your garage.

Most forms of alternative energy, in addition to being a burden on the taxpayer, simply displace the resulting pollution to somewhere else. For example, the chemical processes necessary to create your "clean" solar energy result in considerable waste that is extremely toxic.

Without subsidies, alternative-energy sources cannot pay for themselves within their expected life time. No alternative-energy source cannot produce enough reliable, inexpensive energy to even replicate itself. Only cheap, abundant energy from coal, gas, petroleum, hydro, or nuclear sources can produce an alternative-energy devise.

Some alternative energy sources (ie ethanol which needs more energy to produce than it produces) are simply wasteful.

I oppose taxpayer-funded subsidies for all so-called alternative sources of energy as well as other products that require subsidies to be commercially viable (ie that hybrid or electric car that lugs around a ton of batteries that will become expensive-to-replace toxic waste in a very few years). I am unalterably opposed to politicians using my tax money to support these marketplace failures!

Much talk has centered on the creation of so-called "green" jobs. Our delusional president has promised to create thousands of them out of thin air. "Green" jobs are those in industries, such as "renewable" or alternative energy, that are not viable without substantial infusion of money (green) at the expense of the taxpayer. "Green" jobs are a cruel joke played on a science-illiterate government-miseducated populace by science-illiterate politicians and activists. It is the biggest scam ever attempted. An we, the people, are falling for it. Hard.

Congress must muster the courage to take immediate and aggressive steps to eliminate subsidies and mandates for all technologies that are not viable in a free market. And, of course, if a technology is viable in a free market, it needs no subsidies nor mandates.