Take a Walk on the Sunny Side - Rooftop Revolution - page 42

CHAPTER 4
Take a Walk on the Sunny Side
I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope
we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
— THOMAS EDISON, IN CONVERSATION WITH HENRY FORD AND
HARVEY FIRESTONE, 1931
S OLAR SCHMOLAR, SAYS OL' K ING CONG— JUST LEAVE WELL enough alone: Pay a small
fee when you move into a new home, and we're ready to serve. Just flip a switch, twist
a knob, or press a button, and— voilà— your beer is cold, your shower is hot, and your
TV casts its warm glow onto your grateful faces. We'll take care of your energy needs
and your energy future. (Just make sure you get your monthly check into the mail.) Why
change? Why even consider that solar mumbo jumbo? It's impractical, unreliable, unvi-
able,inefficient,unaffordable,andoverlysubsidized.Plusthosesolarpanelsonyourroofs
would be downright ugly. Maybe there's something to solar power in the distant future,
but if it's really such a great energy alternative, why hasn't it caught on in the 50 years
or so since the technology was first developed? In any case, don't worry your pretty little
heads about that now—we're looking into it, and we'll get back to you. Someday.
This is what the coal, oil, nuke, and gas industries want you to believe, and they've
embarked on a massive and consistent campaign to instigate fear, uncertainty, and doubt
to make their case against solar energy.
Sometimes their message is subtle—for instance, when Dirty Energy proponents call
solar an “alternative” energy (in the way a brutish older sibling dismisses the little brother
hewantseverybodytoignore).Orwhentheycallit“cute”—asMicrosoft'sBillGatessaid
when attempting to start a nuclear renaissance. Or when they call it a “future” or “emer-
ging” technology, which is often Chevron's approach. In all these descriptions, “Don't
bother with solar” is the clear subtext.
SometimesKingCONGismoreblunt,suchastheKochbrothers'“Solyndra=Failure”
campaign ads and when Exxon-Mobil CEO Lee Raymond appeared on PBS's Charlie
Rose show and simply stated, “Solar is not a viable replacement” for oil. Then he went