Hillary Clinton announced goals for increasing US reliance on renewable energy, pledging to have more than a billion solar panels installed nationwide within four years of taking office. She also pledged that the US would generate enough clean renewable energy to power every home in the country within 10 years of taking office. (1)
Stephen Moore calls this 'one of her wackiest ideas.' It would be one of the largest corporate welfare giveaways in American history. The Institute for Energy Research (IER) estimates that the cost of the plan will reach $205 billion. (2)
With her plan, each person in the US, which is populated with 320 million, would have 1 and ½ solar panels they could call their own. If she has her way, the entire landscape in America will be blighted by solar panels and windmills.
President Obama has spent more than $100 billion on solar and wind subsidies. Instead of energy independence, we got bankruptcies like Solyndra.
To accomplish her goals, Mrs. Clinton will use taxpayer funds to extend federal incentives for renewable energy.
The final irony of the Clinton plan is that as the IER points out, the solar industry is 'completely dominated by the Chinese.' So $205 billion of American tax dollars will be used to subsidize extraordinarily expensive solar power panels that are mostly made in China and we will stop producing the cleanest fuel of all, natural gas, which is made in America. (3)
References
“Hillary Clinton pledges half a billion solar panels for US if she wins office,” The Guardian, July 26, 2015
Stephen Moore, “Hillary Clinton's solar energy baloney,” washingtontimes.com, Oct.r 9, 2016
“Hillary's solar PV plan aids Chinese manufacturing,” instituteforenergyresearch.org, July 31, 2015
Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.
