I've been sharing that link everywhere in the last couple of days. I guess I should write my congress critters too, however, living in Austin, my Representative, Doggett, will just ignore it, and Cornyn, probably doesn't care either. I'm not sure where Cruz stands. Maybe he can be influenced.
Nevertheless, it can't hurt to try.
I encourage everyone to write their congress critters.
Okay, I wrote all four (2 senators, 1 house, + President).
Due to a copy/paste oversight, I lost my letter to the congress critters afterward (didn't realize I had replaced the clipboard with something else). Here's my letter to the White House:
=====================================
Dear Mr. President:
First, yet again, thank you for all your efforts to improve the USA.
Please encourage congress to immediately end the IRA subsidies for wind, solar, hydrogen and carbon capture in the budget bill. Delaying the end means that there will never be **any** savings; the subsidies will continue forever.
It is my understanding that the current bill does not even begin to phase out the wind/solar subsidies for four more years.
The reality is that delaying the end of the subsidies makes them into a CBO illusion (delusion). Wind/solar subsidies have been slated to expire eleven (11) times in the past. And every single time, congress caved in to greedy lobbyists and extended this theft from the American electricity consumer and tax payers.
Slating the end of wind/solar theft/subsidies for later means that they will continue forever.
If your colleagues in congress moan about CO2 emissions, ask them why they want the USA to imitate the abject failure of Germany, which has been in recession for 2 years now, has electricity rates 3 times the US average and after squandering more than 20 years and half a trillion Euros, still emits more than 400 grams of CO2 per KWHr of electricity generated.
Meanwhile, next door, France emits less than 60 grams of CO2 per KWHr, pays half as much for electricity, and decarbonized their grid in less than 16 years, between 1976 and 1992.
Do they want the USA to be as great a failure as Germany?
Wind and solar energy continue to drive up energy costs for America and catastrophically destroy grid reliability. Wind energy killed hundreds of people in Texas during Winter Storm Uri by operating at only 3 - 9% of capacity (yes, I know the left press blamed it on gas at 50% capacity). How many more Americans need to die to provide a feeding trough for the pigs building wind and solar?
Our (several) national electrical grids are already near a tipping point in reliability which will make last week in Spain look like business as usual. Four more years of IRA subsidies will destroy the USA's grid reliability nationwide.
Please encourage congress to end these subsidies and save tens of thousands of Americans from freezing in the dark one of these upcoming Winters.
I would like to say that writing my representatives might do some good, but I know it won’t. I live in Minnesota. Below is a list of my representatives. None of them are capable of defining what a woman is, let alone doing something about the grid.
But it can't hurt and I've provided the links to make it easy and a letter you can edit slightly for the congress critters. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes.
And encouraging Trump to turn his eye that way is certainly a good idea. He knows it's a scam, but I'm not sure he realizes how much danger the grid(s) is(are) in at this point.
The stark truth is that the PT tax credits, while unlikely to gain permanent status in the tax code, are effectively immortal through relentless extensions. This entrenched reality stems from America’s role as a global haven for capital, where wealth preservation persists despite the erosive forces of taxation and inflation. The consequences of this permanence are profound and troubling.
Eliminating these credits would sever critical wealth transfers to rural communities and asset holders, accelerating the erosion of economic stability in an already faltering nation. Compounding this, the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring methodology treats phased-out credits as spending reductions for reconciliation purposes, enabling political actors to manipulate fiscal optics through accounting maneuvers. This distorts policy debates and entrenches budgetary dysfunction.
Far from a mere fiscal footnote, the unending extension of tax credits reflects a deeper structural malaise. It sustains an illusion of economic resilience while masking the decline of a nation grappling with its own contradictions. The path forward demands reckoning with these realities, but the political will remains elusive.
PLUS ..... Have we killed the EPA Powerplant Greenhouse Gas ruling yet?? Or are we just not enforcing it? Because if it's still on the books it will be back.
As Reagan said, “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!” I think Grassley believes he will live as long as the subsidies for wind, solar, and ethanol continue and that is what is motivating his push for extensions.
This excellent description of the problem lacks only one thing: We need a list of the surrender monkey Republicans who can’t bring themselves to do the right thing.
"...Under China’s National Intelligence Law, Chinese companies are legally obligated to cooperate with state intelligence services upon request. This has led to concerns that equipment from companies like Huawei could be compelled to provide data or access to Chinese authorities, potentially posing risks to foreign infrastructure.
For decades, renewable energy advocates promised that “distributed” generation of electricity from solar panels and batteries would reduce the risk of blackouts and sabotage.
It’s now clear that that argument was exactly backwards: solar increases the fragility and vulnerability of the grid to blackouts and sabotage by enlarging what military strategists call the grid’s “attack surface,” measured as the total number of points in a network.
The distributed and supposedly more resilient green energy system now looks, under adversarial pressure, like a battlefield mapped in advance for asymmetric warfare...."
It was clear from the outset that renewable advocates' arguments about security and vulnerability were garbage. You don't make a system more resilient by giving it vastly more failure and access points.
Rand Paul and the deficit hawks are stuck in the never-ending "we must cut spending", but when billions in subsidies for wind and solar come up for a discussion, oh lord, we'll cut the "fantasy" thousands of jobs B.S., and "phew, we'll extend them, of course, in 2029, ("after" the next election.) Funny how that works. Meanwhile, no Republicans voted for the IRA, NERC just issued a red flag warning that if heat waves come this summer there is not enough electricity in storage. But, that's okay, "we subsidized more wind and solar so no problem", like it's not the reason why rolling blackouts and then blackouts occur.
The only person who has been involved in a drilling operation is Chris Wright, but is he head of DOI, no. DOE, that has no authority over the BLM, BOEM, et al. Doug Burgman is a fine guy but his relationship with oil and gas operations is regs and taxes in the Bakken field, ND. With the exception of Wright, I hear the bureaucrats and media say "drill baby drill and will they hit the pool of oil"? And then there is "Well, the oil and gas industry gets subsidies"!! I let out one of those screaming lefties sort of howl, since "intangible drilling costs" for oil and natural gas drilling are as close to a subsidy for renewables as James Comey is to the truth.
So, it's useless to call them out since they are all in a vacuum of blockheads who are and will remain ill informed beings who do not understand the need for baseload to maintain reliability on the grid. They all are in the "Beyond Coal" Bloomberg nexus of coal plants destroy the planet. Yet coal fired power plants are essential power to the grid during peak demand, but OMG, not in the U.S., leave it in China since it's okay to stay there. It's mind numbing. Meanwhile, coal plants are being shuttered before their time and here is where the subsidies must be distributed before it's lights out. But, can you see it? Hell no, but what irks is 43 Republicans refused to stop foreign aid and now subsidies are just fine for more unreliable, environmental destroying, birds on fire falling from the sky, 1000 year old Josua trees clear cut, the Amazon rain forest sliced and diced, the slaughter of whales, sea birds, crustaceans beds gone, wind blades falling off, pilots blinded, radar out, and our lands covered with eyesores from end to end. But, but, but, give it time!
So, it's a lost cause since when blackouts happen, natural gas will always be the culprit or will it again be the man behind the curtain. The rest of "it just needs time, for green hydrogen, carbon capture, net metering, wind turbines and solar panels made in America, biomass, hybrid Hindenburgs, battery storage more than 8 hrs, and, and, and, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Citizen’s United opened up that door so industries can donate to get subsidies. it’s not exclusive to wind and solar. I agree though, would be great to see where all the energy sources dollars go.
House Republicans, Senate too –- their email messaging to constituents frequently contains comments on how they fight wasteful spending but when the $ come to their state, it’s “crickets”.
The energy debacle rolls on, e.g., MidAmerican Energy has a proposal before the Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) to build a solar energy project of eight hundred (800) megawatts along with a natural gas energy project of four hundred sixty five (465) megawatts. MidAmerican’s incentive is the solar investment tax credit, and the role rate of return on their rate base plays in their income. It’s about money, it’s not about energy.
Another boondoggle in the corn belt is the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline project to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in IA, MN, NE and SD for sequestration in ND. It is a huge project with massive tax benefits to the developer (Summit Carbon Solutions), courtesy of IRS section 45Q. It is a rent seeker’s goldmine. And this to address an environmental problem that doesn’t exist (CO2), for the ethanol energy industry which is economically unjustified (EROI less than two, one source even has EROI less than one). There is hope that the states involved will not approve it, but??
The hidden elephant in the room is that these are backdoor geezerfare programs. The subsidies support higher payments to landowners, who are predominantly elderly in the areas getting the projects.
I wholeheartedly agree. I first learned about this a few days ago from Alex Epstein's article:
https://alexepstein.substack.com/p/why-the-proposed-phaseout-of-ira
I've been sharing that link everywhere in the last couple of days. I guess I should write my congress critters too, however, living in Austin, my Representative, Doggett, will just ignore it, and Cornyn, probably doesn't care either. I'm not sure where Cruz stands. Maybe he can be influenced.
Nevertheless, it can't hurt to try.
I encourage everyone to write their congress critters.
House: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Senate: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
White House: (Ask Trump to exert influence) https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Okay, I wrote all four (2 senators, 1 house, + President).
Due to a copy/paste oversight, I lost my letter to the congress critters afterward (didn't realize I had replaced the clipboard with something else). Here's my letter to the White House:
=====================================
Dear Mr. President:
First, yet again, thank you for all your efforts to improve the USA.
Please encourage congress to immediately end the IRA subsidies for wind, solar, hydrogen and carbon capture in the budget bill. Delaying the end means that there will never be **any** savings; the subsidies will continue forever.
It is my understanding that the current bill does not even begin to phase out the wind/solar subsidies for four more years.
https://alexepstein.substack.com/p/why-the-proposed-phaseout-of-ira
The reality is that delaying the end of the subsidies makes them into a CBO illusion (delusion). Wind/solar subsidies have been slated to expire eleven (11) times in the past. And every single time, congress caved in to greedy lobbyists and extended this theft from the American electricity consumer and tax payers.
https://energybadboys.substack.com/p/gops-phase-out-of-ira-subsidies-isnt
Please end The Green New Scam **NOW**.
Slating the end of wind/solar theft/subsidies for later means that they will continue forever.
If your colleagues in congress moan about CO2 emissions, ask them why they want the USA to imitate the abject failure of Germany, which has been in recession for 2 years now, has electricity rates 3 times the US average and after squandering more than 20 years and half a trillion Euros, still emits more than 400 grams of CO2 per KWHr of electricity generated.
Meanwhile, next door, France emits less than 60 grams of CO2 per KWHr, pays half as much for electricity, and decarbonized their grid in less than 16 years, between 1976 and 1992.
Do they want the USA to be as great a failure as Germany?
Wind and solar energy continue to drive up energy costs for America and catastrophically destroy grid reliability. Wind energy killed hundreds of people in Texas during Winter Storm Uri by operating at only 3 - 9% of capacity (yes, I know the left press blamed it on gas at 50% capacity). How many more Americans need to die to provide a feeding trough for the pigs building wind and solar?
Our (several) national electrical grids are already near a tipping point in reliability which will make last week in Spain look like business as usual. Four more years of IRA subsidies will destroy the USA's grid reliability nationwide.
Please encourage congress to end these subsidies and save tens of thousands of Americans from freezing in the dark one of these upcoming Winters.
Thank you for all you do for the USA,
Jeff Walther
I would like to say that writing my representatives might do some good, but I know it won’t. I live in Minnesota. Below is a list of my representatives. None of them are capable of defining what a woman is, let alone doing something about the grid.
Representative Angie Craig
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Tina Smith
But it can't hurt and I've provided the links to make it easy and a letter you can edit slightly for the congress critters. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes.
And encouraging Trump to turn his eye that way is certainly a good idea. He knows it's a scam, but I'm not sure he realizes how much danger the grid(s) is(are) in at this point.
The stark truth is that the PT tax credits, while unlikely to gain permanent status in the tax code, are effectively immortal through relentless extensions. This entrenched reality stems from America’s role as a global haven for capital, where wealth preservation persists despite the erosive forces of taxation and inflation. The consequences of this permanence are profound and troubling.
Eliminating these credits would sever critical wealth transfers to rural communities and asset holders, accelerating the erosion of economic stability in an already faltering nation. Compounding this, the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring methodology treats phased-out credits as spending reductions for reconciliation purposes, enabling political actors to manipulate fiscal optics through accounting maneuvers. This distorts policy debates and entrenches budgetary dysfunction.
Far from a mere fiscal footnote, the unending extension of tax credits reflects a deeper structural malaise. It sustains an illusion of economic resilience while masking the decline of a nation grappling with its own contradictions. The path forward demands reckoning with these realities, but the political will remains elusive.
PLUS ..... Have we killed the EPA Powerplant Greenhouse Gas ruling yet?? Or are we just not enforcing it? Because if it's still on the books it will be back.
Precisely. Time to walk the talk and do it right.
Creating jobs through solar subsidies is not so different from stimulating the economy by paying people to dig holes.
As Reagan said, “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!” I think Grassley believes he will live as long as the subsidies for wind, solar, and ethanol continue and that is what is motivating his push for extensions.
This excellent description of the problem lacks only one thing: We need a list of the surrender monkey Republicans who can’t bring themselves to do the right thing.
They need to be famous.
Time to end this nonsense. These virgining technologies have moved on to hooker status! And they are screaming loudest from every street corner.
And now we find out that the Chinese gov't can remotely access and shutdown solar inverters anywhere they wish:
https://www.public.news/p/china-can-cause-blackouts-in-us-and
"...Under China’s National Intelligence Law, Chinese companies are legally obligated to cooperate with state intelligence services upon request. This has led to concerns that equipment from companies like Huawei could be compelled to provide data or access to Chinese authorities, potentially posing risks to foreign infrastructure.
For decades, renewable energy advocates promised that “distributed” generation of electricity from solar panels and batteries would reduce the risk of blackouts and sabotage.
It’s now clear that that argument was exactly backwards: solar increases the fragility and vulnerability of the grid to blackouts and sabotage by enlarging what military strategists call the grid’s “attack surface,” measured as the total number of points in a network.
The distributed and supposedly more resilient green energy system now looks, under adversarial pressure, like a battlefield mapped in advance for asymmetric warfare...."
It was clear from the outset that renewable advocates' arguments about security and vulnerability were garbage. You don't make a system more resilient by giving it vastly more failure and access points.
I agree with everything except continuing to subsidize carbon capture. Why would you want to remove plant food from the atmosphere?
Rand Paul and the deficit hawks are stuck in the never-ending "we must cut spending", but when billions in subsidies for wind and solar come up for a discussion, oh lord, we'll cut the "fantasy" thousands of jobs B.S., and "phew, we'll extend them, of course, in 2029, ("after" the next election.) Funny how that works. Meanwhile, no Republicans voted for the IRA, NERC just issued a red flag warning that if heat waves come this summer there is not enough electricity in storage. But, that's okay, "we subsidized more wind and solar so no problem", like it's not the reason why rolling blackouts and then blackouts occur.
The only person who has been involved in a drilling operation is Chris Wright, but is he head of DOI, no. DOE, that has no authority over the BLM, BOEM, et al. Doug Burgman is a fine guy but his relationship with oil and gas operations is regs and taxes in the Bakken field, ND. With the exception of Wright, I hear the bureaucrats and media say "drill baby drill and will they hit the pool of oil"? And then there is "Well, the oil and gas industry gets subsidies"!! I let out one of those screaming lefties sort of howl, since "intangible drilling costs" for oil and natural gas drilling are as close to a subsidy for renewables as James Comey is to the truth.
So, it's useless to call them out since they are all in a vacuum of blockheads who are and will remain ill informed beings who do not understand the need for baseload to maintain reliability on the grid. They all are in the "Beyond Coal" Bloomberg nexus of coal plants destroy the planet. Yet coal fired power plants are essential power to the grid during peak demand, but OMG, not in the U.S., leave it in China since it's okay to stay there. It's mind numbing. Meanwhile, coal plants are being shuttered before their time and here is where the subsidies must be distributed before it's lights out. But, can you see it? Hell no, but what irks is 43 Republicans refused to stop foreign aid and now subsidies are just fine for more unreliable, environmental destroying, birds on fire falling from the sky, 1000 year old Josua trees clear cut, the Amazon rain forest sliced and diced, the slaughter of whales, sea birds, crustaceans beds gone, wind blades falling off, pilots blinded, radar out, and our lands covered with eyesores from end to end. But, but, but, give it time!
So, it's a lost cause since when blackouts happen, natural gas will always be the culprit or will it again be the man behind the curtain. The rest of "it just needs time, for green hydrogen, carbon capture, net metering, wind turbines and solar panels made in America, biomass, hybrid Hindenburgs, battery storage more than 8 hrs, and, and, and, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
If only that subsidy money had a tracker so we could see how many of those dollars went full circle back in the political campaign coffers. 🤔
Citizen’s United opened up that door so industries can donate to get subsidies. it’s not exclusive to wind and solar. I agree though, would be great to see where all the energy sources dollars go.
Outstanding background! Thank you for preparing this!
Another great article from the Energy Bad Boys.
House Republicans, Senate too –- their email messaging to constituents frequently contains comments on how they fight wasteful spending but when the $ come to their state, it’s “crickets”.
The energy debacle rolls on, e.g., MidAmerican Energy has a proposal before the Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) to build a solar energy project of eight hundred (800) megawatts along with a natural gas energy project of four hundred sixty five (465) megawatts. MidAmerican’s incentive is the solar investment tax credit, and the role rate of return on their rate base plays in their income. It’s about money, it’s not about energy.
Another boondoggle in the corn belt is the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline project to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in IA, MN, NE and SD for sequestration in ND. It is a huge project with massive tax benefits to the developer (Summit Carbon Solutions), courtesy of IRS section 45Q. It is a rent seeker’s goldmine. And this to address an environmental problem that doesn’t exist (CO2), for the ethanol energy industry which is economically unjustified (EROI less than two, one source even has EROI less than one). There is hope that the states involved will not approve it, but??
The hidden elephant in the room is that these are backdoor geezerfare programs. The subsidies support higher payments to landowners, who are predominantly elderly in the areas getting the projects.
Probably the next most egregious Scam since the Covid Farce