EDITORIAL: Solar bailout
The bill for green energy is kees growing. First, you, the taxpayer, provide the federal loans needed to build expensive renewable projects. Then you pay higher power rates to consume the more-expensive energy the government forces you to buy. Then you eat the losses when the loans aren’t repaid.
But a corporate consortium has an all-new way to stick you with the costs: Making you repay their loans to protect their balance sheets.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the giant, $2.2 billion solar plant south of Las Vegas off the Nevada-California border, is a bust. Since opening in February amid great fanfare from its political supporters, the plant has produced only a quarter of the power it was supposed to. That’s a big problem for its owners — NRG Energy, Google and BrightSource Energy — who took out a $1.6 billion loan from the federal government to complete the project.
So, as reported by Forbes, they’ve asked for a $539 million federal grant to help pay off their federal loan — while keeping their cash and whatever revenue the plant generates.
No more bailouts. Not for banks. Not for green energy. Not for any businesses.
