LETTER: The folly of Nevada’s renewable energy mandates

Nevada’s renewable energy quota law, requiring 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030, will result in building about $14 billion worth of new solar plants that would supply $2 billion worth of electricity every year. The $2 billion would mostly be passed on to Nevada residents. The $2 billion spread across an assumed 870,000 Nevada households in 2030 would be a cost of more than $2,000 per year. This is roughly equivalent to imposing a 4 percent state income tax.

In contrast, if we simply build new natural gas plants as needed, the cost of electricity will decline because the percentage of renewables in the mix will decline.

Increasing renewable energy will accomplish nothing. It will very slightly reduce CO2 emissions, but CO2 emissions are much greater in China and India than in the United States and increasing very fast. U.S. emissions have been declining due to increased use of natural gas. Increased renewables will have negligible effect on air pollution because natural gas that we currently use burns extremely clean. Expanding the use of renewable solar energy is utterly useless and stupid.

So, why is this happening? Because special interests that make money from solar energy have captured our state government. With massive propaganda and campaign contributions they have fooled us into supporting renewable energy boondoggles.