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Clinton Promises 500 Million New Solar Panels

An anonymous reader writes: Hillary Clinton, widely regarded as most likely to win the Democrat nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has unveiled her campaign climate plan. Speaking at Iowa State University, Clinton said she would set up tax incentives for renewable energy to drive further adoption. She also set a goal of installing half a billion new solar panels within her first term, if elected. Her plan would cost roughly $60 billion over 10 years, and she intends to pay for it by cutting tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. According to The Guardian, "Clinton has promised to make the issue of climate change a key pillar of her campaign platform."

35 of 574 comments (clear)

  1. Or let us keep our hard-earned money by acoustix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about attempting to end all federal subsidies and let us keep our own money and spend it how we see fit?

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    1. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because that worked out beautifully so far.

    2. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But then people should just buy the cheapest, dirtiest energy and consumer products that they could lay their hands on, regardless of the effect on others. After a very long time lawsuits might step in the sort things out I guess. Alternatively the government could just ban all coal, gas and nuclear energy but that doesn't seem very practical.

      Subsidy of the things we, collectively, need is a good idea.

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    3. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by tysonedwards · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Cutting tax breaks for oil? 3, 2, 1, aaaaand boned.

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      Thirty four characters live here.
    4. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Shouldn't we collectively agree on what is needed, before we collectively decide to pay for them? Is this a democratic republic?

      You can have one or the other. You can be a "democratic republic" or you can decide things by "collective" agreement. Which one do you prefer?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Things are so much better since we cut taxes for the wealthy.

      The infrastructure is crumbling and college tuition which was free or nearly free now costs more than a luxury car at state universities.

      We should have more of this dog eat dog stuff until we can share the glorious french experience of 1789 to 1799.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    6. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sure it has; in the late 1800s and early 1900s there were almost no taxes and few subsidies. Everyone (but mostly the very rich) kept their money and spent it however they liked. The results were so unpleasant that the country decided that unions and OSHA, for all of their problems, were preferable to that state.

      The problem with "spending our money as we see fit" is that we ignore externalities. I live in PA; our cheapest power comes from coal plants. Coal causes really bad health problems once it is burned and released into the air; modern exhaust scrubbers help but we still end up with lots of crud entering our lungs. But the health costs are an externality to the coal plants, so coal power's price is artificially low. I still pay the total cost in higher health care costs and a shorter working life, but it doesn't appear as a line item anywhere. By subsidizing solar panels and other less-polluting energies, the hope is to spend money now to reduce medicare and health insurance costs for the next 50 years. You may believe that this will not same you money overall, or that there is a better way to go about this, but it's not an illogical or crazy plan.

    7. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Immerman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because market inefficiencies make certain necessary adaptations effectively impossible.

      For example, if Company A decides they want to be responsible corporate "citizens" and shift their energy consumption to sustainable sources, then they increase their costs and can no longer compete effectively with Company B unless there's a mass movement to purchase A's products because of their energy policy. And unfortunately the existence of Walmart and the like is proof enough that the mass of Americans consider up-front price to be the single most important factor in purchasing decisions, even when it increases their own long-term costs (a $50 appliance that needs to be replaced yearly is far more expensive than a $200 appliance that will last indefinitely), much less indirect social costs whose full weight won't be felt for generations.

      Granted, at the moment if we removed all fossil-fuel subsidies renewable energy would look far more competitive, but to really level the playing field we would have to also impose new penalties on "socialized-cost subsidies" that have long been grandfathered in: Coal for example imposes phenomenal pollution costs at almost every stage. If however we imposed well-structured penalties/taxes to reflect the actual cost of reversing that damage then it would be one of the most expensive energy sources available.

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      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    8. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, actually. A democracy (direct or representative) uses "voting" to collectively decide things. Which is what we are doing when we go to the polls in November 2016. We'll never get 100% agreement, so you or I may decide that our opinions were ignored, but this is how democracy works. Non-collective agreements are what you get with dictators of various stripes who cannot be removed from office.

      I'd be happier if the results were less skewed by billions of dollars of legal bribery (AKA campaign funding), but we've decided that we're okay with that, unfortunately.

    9. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Insightful

      External health costs? Do you have any idea how many highly toxic chemicals are used, in quantity, to turn polysilicon into a working solar cell? *

      Better idea: Use environmental and workplace safety laws to enforce and minimize those health costs, instead of using the concept as a cudgel to push cronyism.

      * I have worked in the solar industry - even the polycrystal and monocrystal cells use an astounding amount of toxic gases and fluids to prep and coat a solar cell, and don't ask what goes into a thin-film solar panel...

      --
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    10. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with subsiding solar is that it causes the market to compete for subsidies instead of produceing a good product.

      Funny, never once heard that complaint about oil, but renewables come along and all of a sudden it's all hand-wringing and embarrassed shrugs...

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    11. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Absolutely after a day of hunting, give me a curvy redhead I only have to pay once and don't have to talk to, and a bottle of good scotch and that is money well spent. At least getting screwed by the hooker is a hell of a lot more fun than having the government do it.

      Ah....my kingdom for MOD points today!!

      :)

      The govt shouldn't be in the business of trying to mold or target my behavior. I fail to find in the US Constitution where that is one of its few, enumerated responsibilities and rights...

      Look, I don't mind paying reasonable taxes, to fund common good things, schools, roads, etc. But that is best done by the states who are more directly answerable to MY needs locally.

      I earn my my money, and should be able to spend it on anything legal I wish and I should not be having external forces, like the federal govt trying to mold my behavior by penalizing me with taxation.

      That is simply NOT their job.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    12. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Better idea: Use environmental and workplace safety laws to enforce and minimize those health costs, instead of using the concept as a cudgel to push cronyism.

      Except in 240 years of American government both under the Constitution and the Articles before it that has NEVER been successful. Cronyism has basically been the character of our government from the outset.

      The only thing that has ever worked is to tie the hands of government and the framers knew it. Power corrupts!

      A far better idea would be to eliminate liability protections, weaken the corporate veil, and stop government backed lending. Make industry responsible for the harm it can do. The tail pound from your mine leaked and now my farm land is useless. I should be able to sue the coal company for the economic value of my land and income it could have generated for my family for the next 10 generations and if the coal company goes bankrupt I should be able to collect from the share holders in proportion to the remaining liability and stock they own.

      Oil spill same deal. Heavy metal toxicity from the shit your solar panel plant releases ditto. You want people and industry to behave responsibly the solution is unlimited liability.

      --
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    13. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, that's just what this country's over-leveraged home owners need---more loans.

      And exactly who held a gun to those home owners' heads and forced them to take out loans way beyond their means?

      If you don't know how to live within your means, manage your money like an adult, and overstretch yourself fiscally and fuckup and blow it and lose it....exactly who's fault is that?

      And why would anyone suggest other folks having to be there to catch them when they fall?

      The US is supposed to be free...free to succeed and free to fuck up.

      Most good lessons in life are learned more from fucking up and having to deal with the repercussions.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    14. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by LifesABeach · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My questions to Clinton is, "Only big business is involved? Why can't americans be involved also?"

    15. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by SydShamino · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So we think, now, 30 years after the fact, that the large amount of lead being released into the air from the automotive industry was responsible for the drastic increases in violent crime in the 1960s and 1970s.

      Even supposing we hadn't banned leaded gasoline, how exactly do you think the oil and gas industry would take to new efforts to tax their products today? Do you think consumers would enjoy it? Can we ever prove 100% that this was the cause? How many years back would we need to try to retroactively collect these taxes? Can we even legally do so? Just exactly how much do value do you assign to damaging a baby or young child's brain so that you can appropriate tax gasoline for the effect?

      Now take everything I just said and apply it to carbon dioxide and global climate change and see how well it's working.

      When applied to the commons - primarily the environment - unregulated capitalism is an absolute failure. Attempting to apply more market forces to it only works if your goal is to hasten the revolution that swings things too far in some other direction.

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      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    16. Re:Or let us keep our hard-earned money by Firethorn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      An entity charge would look at those, and recognize that the second one is focused on clean energy and produces only 5% of the emissions that the first one does, and adjust the tax bill so that the first pays 20 times as much additional tax as the second.

      Amazingly similar to what I proposed once, though I got jumped on it a bit.

      I said that I'd get rid of all the 'thou shalt do' regulations in the EPA, the allowances and grandfathering, etc...

      Instead, I'd charge for any pollution. Your power plant emits 1 ton of mercury into the atmosphere a year? That will be $X.

      Figure out approximately how much damage X type of pollution in Y type(air, water, ground) causes - environment, medical, death, etc... Multiply by 110% or so to cover the administration costs. Charge the company.

      Internalizing an external cost. Is the pollution not really that big of a deal, and cost-ineffective to handle? Pay the tax. Is it a big deal and it is cost-effective to remediate? They do that. Is it a big deal but not cost-effective? Obviously that economic activity is self-destructive to the country and needs to cease.

      --
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    17. Re: Or let us keep our hard-earned money by kqs · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Why does personal responsibility only apply to the poor, not the bankers?

      Blaming the people who took out loans they could not repay is a good idea. (Though it seems that many of those people were lied to by their mortgage brokers about variable rates and balloon loans, but still, people should know better.)

      But I'm surprised that you don't blame the mortgage brokers who falsified the mortgage applications. Or the bank approval officers who approved the applications which contained ludicrous data. Or the people who chopped up the mortgages into tranches, or who rated the crap mortgages AAA, or who bought them for their pensions funds, etc.

      You are blaming the people with absolutely no financial training and who only saw a tiny piece of the landscape, but are giving a free pass to all of the financial experts who saw the whole rotten thing. Why?

      Oh, right, because we bailed out the banks so bankers' only repercussions were 6-8 figure annual bonuses. Once again, why do you want personal responsibility to only apply to the poor, not the bankers?

  2. Reaction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is simply a reaction against Bernie Sanders. He is far more socialist than the original 'HIllary is a leftist (err center)' view and yet he is gaining ground (or beating Clinton in certain arenas).

    I expect we'll see some republican candidates become more conservative as an action against Trump.

    Also....who cares? These election promises are just hot smoke to blow up the public's collective ass. "Of course I love you, baby! No way, I'd never leave before breakfast!". etc.

    1. Re:Reaction by mc6809e · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course Hillary has no response to Bernie Sanders' honesty.

      Whether one agrees with Bernie Sanders' ideology or not, you can trust Sanders to be honest.

      Hillary believes lying is just part of playing the game and she will do anything to win.

    2. Re:Reaction by asylumx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And SHE KNOWS BETTER.

      Sure, all the candidates know better -- but many voters don't. They believe what they want to believe. For example when gas prices go up under a democrat president you'll hear right-wingers crying about how the president causes it and left-wingers claiming he doesn't have control. When the prices go down you'll hear right-wingers claiming he had nothing to do with it and left-wingers claiming he made it all better. Vice versa for a republican president. Nobody cares what the president can actually do when they are at the polls, they only care that what the candidate said resonates with their world view, however rational or bat-shit crazy it may be.

      You and I can tell the difference between a blind campaign promise and a plan for something that's actually achievable, but many people either can't or won't make the effort to do that. That's what drags our political discourse down a series of tubes. We, collectively, get the candidates we deserve. The fact that the best candidates available right now are people like Donald Trump is a reflection of our own society, sadly.

  3. Two birds with one stone by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate that saying though... what did those poor little birds do to you?!

    Her plan would cost roughly $60 billion over 10 years, and she intends to pay for it by cutting tax breaks to the oil and gas industry.

    She wants to cut tax breaks to industries that are making billions in profit to help make her country less dependant on limited ressources.

    She'd have my vote except for the fact that I don't live in the U.S.A.

    1. Re:Two birds with one stone by operagost · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I can see you're a single-issue kinda guy.

      So the fact that she broken government regulations and hid confidential emails on her personal server doesn't bother you?

      The fact that she dismissed the disastrous terrorist attack on the US embassy in Benghazi doesn't bother you?

      --

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  4. Re:I have my own promise by Karmashock · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... can we try to vote for someone that hasn't been CAUGHT lying... yet?

    Look, I know all politicians are liars but do we have to be so desensitized to it to actually vote for people that were caught lying?

    There are plenty of politicians on both sides that haven't been caught lying. Pick one of them please.

    --
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  5. Dammit, be careful! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    She needs to tread carefully with this. Obama's first move was to get involved with Solyndra, a company that made solar panels, and it was a huge failure and amounted to what was business fraud in the end (he pumped taxpayer money into a company doomed to fail from the outset, while the owners got to pocket tons of bucks).

    I drive past the former Solyndra building every day to work, and it is a constant reminder of him either being so unprepared that he made a terrible mistake or mislead the public to enrich his business buddies. Given the unethical stuff he's doing now (Expanded drilling for Shell, trying to push TPP through, Keystone XL work, etc.) it was likely the latter.

    I want Hillary to win, but a big solar component to her plan will make the Republicans bring up Solyndra over and over again.

  6. Normal human translation by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What this means to the layperson is, "The solar industry can't survive on its own and needs a crap-ton of subsidies to keep it afloat."
    This didn't work in the 70s but I guess because "the right people" will be in charge, it'll work this time around.

    1. Re:Normal human translation by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The same could be said for the oil and gas industries. With billions in pure profits, why the fuck are they still getting subsidies and tax breaks?

  7. Re:Hopefully the actual plan defines the terms by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    $60 Billion for 500 million panels = $120 per panel. Of course, panel size is not specified (not a needed detail when hawking votes), but the present incentives are more than that per panel if you are talking $1kw panels or larger. Is she proposing a reduction in incentives?

  8. Re:Storage? by compro01 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's the issue with lead-acid batteries? They're one of the most recycled things around.

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  9. nice pivot. by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    public: what about rampant police abuse of power?
    the constant unending stream of shadow money into political campaigns?
    the nearly endless war on terror and our secret torture prison in Cuba?
    What are you going to do about the impending student loan collapse and the rampant US unemployment fueled by abusive trade agreements that are largely unreported?
    what approach will you take to immigration reform?
    How will you address the growing number of domestic mass shootings?
    What is your approach to the continued neglect of social security? the highway trust? the Veterans Administration?
    Clinton: Free solar panels for everything forever.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  10. Re:She can give me 30 of them by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, it DOES cost the power company.... Even if they don't pay you for the power you generate.

    The electric grid needs to be stable, that requires that every watt of power being used, must be instantly available when the demand for it happens. When you hit that light switch, the power to run the light must be instantly generated someplace, turn that light off and the system must stop providing that power, instantly. This instant power on/off capacity is actually done using mechanical storage in the spinning parts of power generation plants.

    Solar panels and inverters have no such storage capacity, they push power into the system when the sun shines, and stop doing that when it doesn't. This means that on cloudy days there is a large variation in the power available from photovoltaic solar sources. This variation can be averaged over large areas, but there remains a lot of uncertainty in how much power will be available at any instant, because it's really hard to forecast with accuracy where a cloud or thunder storm will be formed and where it will go.

    So, this leads to how photovoltaic solar has "cost" for your electric provider. Because of the uncertainty of how much power your solar panels will have available, the provider must maintain sufficient margin available to handle the instantaneous load of the entire system. So they are burning fuel to be ready to produce electricity they are unlikely to use because of the unpredictable nature of photovoltaic solar and not knowing if they will get what they expect from that source or not.

    In addition, there are transmission grid efficiency issues that come into play. It is really hard to keep the grid efficient when you know where and when you've scheduled power to be available and when and where it will be used. With the load variance introduced from a photovoltaic power source this problem becomes even more difficult. Power companies respond by using less efficient, but more stable configurations and power flows because of this varying load within the system. This inefficiency costs them as well.

    So, I'm not saying that it's all bad for power companies. Being able to buy power from your solar panels at your retail rate during peak load where the going spot rate may be triple or more is a good thing for them, but I am saying that there ARE costs in efficiency and complexity for them.

    Then there is a safety issue that's not talked about too much when the power grid goes down in local areas. Your Photovoltaic system can be pretty lethal for linemen if left connected when the power grid is down. Hopefully you have an inverter that figures out pretty quick when the line voltage and frequency is out of working range and shuts down, but there is a risk things won't work as expected and somebody gets hurt. It's a minor issue, but it does have cost for electric providers.

    --
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  11. Re:She is better then jeb bush by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not trolling here, but you assume a lot of people think all those are a bad thing.

    My check from the government is my earned entitlement. Your check from the government is an amoral welfare. Paul Ryan hates Social Security, but when he drew Social Security to get to college, it was somehow fine. Even Ayn Rand drew government checks.

    Also JEB Bush is redundant, like typing your PIN Number on an ATM Machine. J.E.B. is an acronym for John Elliot Bush. The Bush is redundant, much like Bushes in general ;) Ok, that last part was a troll, but the first part not, I swear.

  12. Re:I have my own promise by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have you ever lied?

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  13. Where in the US Constitution..... by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Hmm.

    I"m still trying to thumb through my US Constitution and find where within the enumerated responsibilities and rights of the Federal Govt. that it is charged with picking winners and losers in industry. Also,where in there is the Fed govt supposed to figure out health costs of one industry vs another and penalize one over another?

    And no, it has nothing to do with the "General Welfare" parts....

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  14. Really, solar and climate change again? by U8MyData · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Please. This is simple pandering to manufactured crisis' that has been going on for a long time. Does everyone realize that within a hundred years of time we have progressed as a species faster than any other time in history? The planet is a living breathing organism that can catch a cold, fever, flu, etc. We are more or less trying to micro manage the health of a 4.5 billion year old planet. Yes, I am certain we have as a species effected the environment and we DO need to be cognoscente; however, mother earth can and will take care of herself.

    As far as this solar issue, isn't there more pressing things that a presidential candidate should be consumed with? Russia, China, Iran, ( Clinton, in my opinion, will hurt this country more than help or lead. She has this sense of entitlement that wreaks. This is unfortunate as the battle and movement to be the "first female" president of the United States trumps (no pun intended) and defiles the dignity and integrity of the office of POTUS. I for one will be happy when there are no longer pursuits of social experimentation and where decisions of this kind of import will be based on what they should, the merit and qualification of any candidate. Perhaps this is a Utopian perspective on our democracy, however, it isn't a bad standard from which to start qualification.