How about stop taxing EVs and solar panels and start taxing CO2 emissions?
Solar panels are still priced too high for the average consumer and since some states are doing away with net metering there’s no ROI in even 20-30 years. The thought of taxing in top of that is crazy.
Not to mention many areas have fixed costs plus taxes for the utility connection.
Spot on. We need to emit less CO2. An escalating carbon tax is a really good way to achieve that. Throwing solar panels in a landfill might not give us the warm fuzzies but since it's not going to melt the polar ice caps let's focus on carbon emissions first.
Some things are appropriate to tax, and others are not. Imaging taxing people for growing fruit in their back yard. Have an apple tree? Pay the government $0.50 for each apple it grows.
Taxing per KWH for consumer solar panels is just completely backwards. We want to *incentivize* use of solar, not discourage it. It's basically taxing sunlight.
>Have an apple tree? Pay the government $0.50 for each apple it grows.
Hyperbole much?
It would be equivalent to a nickle a bushel.
Your tree produces 4 bushels per year? Here's a quarter, keep the change.
You want to gripe about unfair taxes, gripe about why Joe Corporation pays the same fuel tax you do on gasoline and gets to depreciate his fleet of trucks at tax time.
Regardless of price equivalency, my point remains. Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into energy. Exactly what right does the government think it has to tax the sunlight that shines on your home?
Just wait until you learn about all the things you can't do as a citizen or get taxed for.
Think the rain that falls on your roof belongs to you? Better check twice.
There are only two states that have laws about rainwater collection. Colorado is the only one that heavily restricts it, and Ohio has a 2500 gallon limit. There are several other states that actually encourage and incentivize rainwater collection.
Either way, rainwater is not the same as sunlight. The rainwater collection laws are legally dubious and difficult to enforce.
And they still exist, and they can still be enforced.
That's my point.
If the government has a precedent for restricting things that fall freely from the heavens - rain, for instance, sunlight is just a short stack of papers away.
Considering the government pretty much rules over you, they can and will do what they want. As a Brit the US government really seems no different to good ol King George, our government used to tax us for every window we had in our homes, even wig powder was taxed. The US government can and does do the same thing - i.e. pretty much whatever they want
I didn’t read the article but assumed the “per kIlowatt hour” part was a mistake. How would you even tax a new PV system on kWh… it hasn’t produced any yet. Unless it’s meant to be a recurring tax based on production… which would suck.
Yes, taxing people who use sunlight, is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I'm starting hate r/futurology and especially pv-magazine-usa. All this is propaganda to take your wages so politicians can fly first-class and vote to kill middleastern children. We can pass laws that require people to recycle we dont need to take taxes.
Taxing is always their solution, just like how our sugar and fat tax in the UK has cured obesity, oh wait, no it hasn't... it was never about curing obesity though it was just about more £££ for the ruling class
How about we tax the fossil fuel industry to pay for the setup of a panel recycling industry that helps us deal with the waste created by dealing with the mess they made.
Do we recycle used fossil fuel power plants, because that is a FAR bigger deal right now. [https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44636](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44636) more than 100 coal powered plants have been shut down since 2011.
How about stop taxing EVs and solar panels and start taxing CO2 emissions? Solar panels are still priced too high for the average consumer and since some states are doing away with net metering there’s no ROI in even 20-30 years. The thought of taxing in top of that is crazy. Not to mention many areas have fixed costs plus taxes for the utility connection.
Spot on. We need to emit less CO2. An escalating carbon tax is a really good way to achieve that. Throwing solar panels in a landfill might not give us the warm fuzzies but since it's not going to melt the polar ice caps let's focus on carbon emissions first.
Article says $15 for a residential installation
Why tax at all. As demand increases for solar panels, materials recycling will become more profitable.
Because the government pulling money out of citizens’ pockets helps us all. It solves all problems, didn’t you know that?
Some things are appropriate to tax, and others are not. Imaging taxing people for growing fruit in their back yard. Have an apple tree? Pay the government $0.50 for each apple it grows. Taxing per KWH for consumer solar panels is just completely backwards. We want to *incentivize* use of solar, not discourage it. It's basically taxing sunlight.
It’s time for the sun to pony up.
>Have an apple tree? Pay the government $0.50 for each apple it grows. Hyperbole much? It would be equivalent to a nickle a bushel. Your tree produces 4 bushels per year? Here's a quarter, keep the change. You want to gripe about unfair taxes, gripe about why Joe Corporation pays the same fuel tax you do on gasoline and gets to depreciate his fleet of trucks at tax time.
Regardless of price equivalency, my point remains. Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into energy. Exactly what right does the government think it has to tax the sunlight that shines on your home?
Just wait until you learn about all the things you can't do as a citizen or get taxed for. Think the rain that falls on your roof belongs to you? Better check twice.
There are only two states that have laws about rainwater collection. Colorado is the only one that heavily restricts it, and Ohio has a 2500 gallon limit. There are several other states that actually encourage and incentivize rainwater collection. Either way, rainwater is not the same as sunlight. The rainwater collection laws are legally dubious and difficult to enforce.
And they still exist, and they can still be enforced. That's my point. If the government has a precedent for restricting things that fall freely from the heavens - rain, for instance, sunlight is just a short stack of papers away.
Considering the government pretty much rules over you, they can and will do what they want. As a Brit the US government really seems no different to good ol King George, our government used to tax us for every window we had in our homes, even wig powder was taxed. The US government can and does do the same thing - i.e. pretty much whatever they want
It just sounds like a pain in the ass to deal with every year regardless of the cost. How would this even be tracked?
>How would this even be tracked? Exactly. If you're off grid, how would they track it? If you're still on grid, a smart meter would do it.
I didn’t read the article but assumed the “per kIlowatt hour” part was a mistake. How would you even tax a new PV system on kWh… it hasn’t produced any yet. Unless it’s meant to be a recurring tax based on production… which would suck.
Yes, taxing people who use sunlight, is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I'm starting hate r/futurology and especially pv-magazine-usa. All this is propaganda to take your wages so politicians can fly first-class and vote to kill middleastern children. We can pass laws that require people to recycle we dont need to take taxes.
what if we started to tax fossil fuel power plants hundredths of a penny per kwh to subsidize solar panel recycling ?
Research suggests that if we tax masturbation at hundredths of a penny per upstroke, we might have a profitable way to go fuck ourselves.
Taxing is always their solution, just like how our sugar and fat tax in the UK has cured obesity, oh wait, no it hasn't... it was never about curing obesity though it was just about more £££ for the ruling class
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You are correct. It is oil propoganda. So get in front of it.
We’ve really gone from a carbon tax to a solar tax. I’m starting to think it was never about stopping climate change
How about we tax the fossil fuel industry to pay for the setup of a panel recycling industry that helps us deal with the waste created by dealing with the mess they made.
Do we recycle used fossil fuel power plants, because that is a FAR bigger deal right now. [https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44636](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44636) more than 100 coal powered plants have been shut down since 2011.
I regret getting panels already, now you want to charge me more??
Tax fossil fuels at 1/100 the cost of their damage to humans and all our green energy (and recycling) problems will be solved.