From the department of this makes no fucking sense whatsoever...

[MindPilot]

San Diego's solar permit fee now 6 times more expensive

Six months after proudly announcing that San Diego leads the state in the number of rooftop solar systems, city officials last month made it more expensive to go green by raising its fees sixfold.

The cost of getting a solar installation plan approved and the system inspected has risen to $565 from $93. The increase reflects a policy change by the city to quit subsidizing solar installations and adjust fees to reflect what it costs to issue the permits, officials say.

Solar advocates and installers say the fee increase is unjustified and may hurt efforts to cut carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Daniel Sullivan, whose San Diego installation business has grown from two employees to 28 in the past five years. “You don’t start taxing the industry that’s growing the fastest just because your general fund is hurting.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/11/sd-solar-permit-fee-6-times-more-expensive/

Seems like this is the kind of thing that the supposed green technology stimulus package should be subsidizing

[jobycom]

1. Somewhere there's a political hand in a corporate pocket.

:shrug:

[Nikki Stone1]

9. Oh yeah.

Wonder who?

[Joanie Baloney]

2. So this is what it looks like

from inside the rabbit hole looking up?

Hmmm. I thought it would be less scary. Ridiculously ass-backwards - that's what this is.

:banghead:

-JB

[TheKentuckian]

3. Oh it makes sense but just the same kind of sense it made when California killed the electric car

supposedly for pie in the sky hydrogen cells but really to appease big oil, BushCo, and the auto manufacturers and to continue oil addiction and filthy air.

[notesdev]

4. The city is broke

hence, it can't afford to subsidize things.

[Goldstein1984]

5. From a city fiscal perspective, it makes sense.

As another post said, states and municipalities are going broke. Cutting budgets to maintain essential services (sanitation, infrastructure, public safety, administration) is the responsible thing to do.

But, with the impact of our culture on the environment, the need to develop alternative energy sources, and an opportunity to create "green jobs" and "green industries," I wonder why we're wasting my grandchildren's tax dollars on social programs to keep the wealthy wealthy, when those hundreds of billions could be used to create the kinds of job and infrastructure programs that were so successful after the Great Depression.

We're ignoring a historical success and focusing on perpetuation contemporary failure.

[BeFree]

6. From a fiscal sense..

...it's just more government intrusion on the little guy.
500 bucks to inspect a system? Inspect it for what? Is an inspection worth 500 bucks? Hell no.

Now, pay to inspect coal and nuke plants? Hell yeah.

[Goldstein1984]

7. One of the reasons I live in Alaska

I don't no if an inspection or building permit would be required to install a solar panel system on my roof in Alaska, and I probably wouldn't bother to find out before installing one. Things are much more restrictive in the Lower 48.

[BeFree]

8. It is awful

The style and design of houses that were built a 100 years ago are pretty much outlawed now. There they've stood for a 100 years and now suddenly they aren't good enough?

The whole government riding on the backs of folks has gotten ridiculous. Alaska really is the final frontier, eh?

Well, as soon as it gets warm long enough to go barefoot for 6 months out of the year, I'm moving in on ya.

[Goldstein1984]

11. We own an 85-year-old home in Nebraska

We've completely replaced the old knob-and-tube two-stranded wiring system with modern wiring, completely replaced the plumbing, installed an interconnected smoke detector system covering every room on all three floors, installed an upstairs bathroom, modernized the kitchen and main floor bathroom (including a whirlpool tub), and replaced all the windows with modern double-pane windows that fit into the original frames.

What we wouldn't change was the incredible woodwork in the living room and formal dining room. Nor did we alter the original framing, which was built back when a 2x4 was actually two inches by four inches in dimensions and the pine was so hard that we had to pre-drill holes to drive nails.

When we were home shopping, we looked at both modern construction and older homes. The older homes had so much character that my wife started referring to modern construction as bleak, lacking character, bland, and my favorite--"space stations."

Alaska is becoming like anyplace else, but it's much more free than most places. In Nebraska we had to drive for hours to find land that wasn't fenced and under cultivation. What Nebraskans call camp grounds we call crowded block parties. We live in the Eagle River Valley, where hiking and solitude are five minutes away, and where my German shepherd had to save me from a brown bear attack two years ago. I could go on.

Let me know when you want to visit. We've never really gone to the tourist places, except for glacier and wildlife cruises and some scuba diving in Valdez, but nature is everywhere. Winters are long and cold though. I'm not a skier and I don't like the snow machine culture, so for me winters are for simple hiking and reading.

[ddeclue]

10. I"m sure every fee in California is 6x as expensive..

See Schwartzenegger, Arnold for an explanation...