Blinded by the sun

All the city officials were suspender-popping proud Thursday as they showed off the new carports at the Stupak Community Center in Naked City -- named for the showgirls who reportedly sunned themselves on the rooftops of area apartments.

Speaking of sun, these new carports provide more than shade. They are topped with solar panels that will generate electricity for government-owned buildings and save the taxpayers money on the buildings' power bills.

The federal government has been on a campaign to provide ever more tax money for such projects. One subsidy program was set to expire at the end of the year, but it has been extended through 2011 under the deal cut by President Obama and congressional Republicans.

The program originally provided a 30 percent federal tax credit for home and business renewable energy projects. But the recession limited tax liabilities and made the program less effective, so the Obama administration changed it to a 30 percent cash grant.

The extension of the grants is in the tax-cut measure introduced by Sen. Harry Reid, who said, "It provides incentives to create clean energy jobs, energy-efficient homes and investments in renewable energy."

The carports at the Stupak Center will generate about 50,000 kilowatt-hours annually, or roughly 30 percent of the adjacent buildings' electricity use, said a city official. There also will be a recharging station for electric cars. Additional solar-panel carports are to be built at the Natural History Museum and at a fire station on Martin Luther King.

The three projects should save $28,000 a year over the 30-year life of the photovoltaic panels.

A Review-Journal story reported the three projects are being paid for with a $1.2 million HUD grant of taxpayer money and a $414,250 rebate check from NV Energy's ratepayers. The total cost is only $1.3 million, so the surplus will be spent on other solar installations.

Over the life of the panels, the taxpayers and ratepayers will save a whopping $840,000. What a deal!

You take other people's money and spend it on a project that can't even break even.