President Obama subsidized solar and other renewable energy in the United States with taxpayer money to the tune of $39 billion per year on average for the past 5 years. These massive subsidies, however, have done little to increase the contribution of solar power to the electricity generation mix as solar is expected to produce just 0.6 percent of electricity generation this year.(i] Disregarding the cost to the American taxpayer and the failed solar projects in the United States, President Obama has pledged billions of dollars to fund solar energy development in India. On his trip to India, President Obama was hoping to bring back a deal similar to the one he made in China to peak the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected the President’s proposed global warming deal, realizing his priority should be to bring power to the hundreds of millions of Indians that lack access to electricity.[ii] India’s Prime Minister knows that it needs all forms of electricity generation, including coal, to accomplish this goal.
