The administration refuses to increase the amount of federal land open to oil and gas drilling. But it is happy to unlock public land for another energy source. It just happens to be one that doesn’t work well.
The fossil-fuel-averse White House announced last week that it would set aside 285,000 acres in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah for solar energy projects.
An additional 19 million acres will be available for solar development through waivers.
Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar, who has apparently forgotten about the Obama administration’s many solar power scandals, announced the initiative in what he called a “proud moment.”
There were no solar projects on federal land when Barack Obama was elected four years ago. And for good reason: Solar is an inferior source of energy.
Abundant fossil fuels are cheaper. Germany learned this when the government’s rush to solar raised the average consumer’s power bill by $260 a year.
And fossil fuels are far more efficient. A University of Oregon study found that it takes 10 units of alternative energy to displace a single unit of fossil-fuel energy.
