Reid’s Chinese solar scheme stinks

When Sen. Harry Reid goes to bat for a project that makes no political sense, you can bet something about that project bears closer inspection.

In this case, a Chinese company is going to get incentives and all kinds of what liberals normally call corporate "welfare" to build a solar plant in Laughlin, with the express purpose of selling this expensive electricity to California, which has enacted laws that requires the state to use about 30 percent of its energy consumption from alternative energy.

Even if you can buy off on the economics of this deal -- which I don't, by the way -- why in the world would we incent a Chinese company to do it when there are plenty of American companies with their hands already out begging for public money?

What else drives Sen. Reid on this crazy idea? Well, his son, Rory, works for the company. Former U.S. Sen. Dick Bryan is getting some billable hours, too. But I'll bet there are other side deals on this project far less transparent than that.

To raise even more questions, now comes the news that the central premise to the Chinese solar plant in Laughlin, which is to sell energy to California, is dead. California told the solar company it would not commit to buying the power.

So, instead of getting our money back and telling China to go back to China, what does Reid do -- he starts publicliy shilling for the company pressuring Nevada Energy to step in to buy the Chinese company's power -- thus driving up the costs of residents in Las Vegas.

Again, this makes zero political sense for Sen. Reid.

And it makes zero sense from a business standpoint. Tomas Maslin was quoted in Bloomberg earlier this year saying the Reid deal is "counter to most logic," adding, "It doesn't make sense in terms of supply and demand. The likely rationale is that because they’re building on public land they need to justify somehow the price through job creation and high- tech manufacturing.”

So you tell me? What got Sen. Reid all excited about outsourcing American's solar energy to China?

Since most everyone seems unwilling to say it out loud, I will: Something stinks. Is there an investigative reporter in the house?