Oregon lawmakers quadruple state's credits for residential solar projects

[jpak]

http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/09/15/news/news13.txt

SALEM (AP) - In rainy Oregon, solar energy has not been a huge draw.

But fans of the renewable power systems are hoping that will change, now that Oregon lawmakers have quadrupled the state's credits for residential solar projects.

Current law allows state residents to receive a tax credit worth as much as $1,500 per calendar year if they install photovoltaic cells or solar water heaters that generate 500 watts of power.

The new law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2006, allows residents to get rebates for 2,000 watts of photovoltaic capacity, and then can qualify for a total of $6,000 in credits over four years - or $1,500 a year.

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[Massacure]

1. Wee! More subsidies.

It is you that is always whining about the subsidies right?

[NNadir]

2. Don't knock 'em. No one uses them anyway. They're almost free.

A subsidy for something too expensive to buy has almost no effect.

[jpak]

3. Those homeowners receive a credit on taxes they actually paid

using money they actually earned for PV systems they actually bought themselves.

Quite unlike ChimpCo's Robber Baron Nuclear Power Renaissance Scam...

http://www.energybulletin.net/8282.html

Can you say "Corporate Welfare"????

[dcfirefighter]

4. They both qualify as corporate welfare

They both need a Carbon Tax to be competitive. It's much easier politically, to try and level the playing field with subsidies than it is to do the right thing and internalize the externalities of power generation and let the market sort it out.