Under the twin pressures of a veto threat by Bush and a Republican filibuster led by Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, Senate Democrats on Thursday stripped from the bill provisions to extend and strengthen tax incentives for homeowners and businesses that install solar energy products, and other clean energy measures, offset with $21.8 billion in tax hikes, mostly on the oil industry. 

Senate passes energy bill minus renewable energy tax incentives : National-World : Albuquerque Tribune

While consumers and voters were shopping for Wii’s for the teens, Webkins for the kids, and a truck bed liner for mom or dad, the politicians decided to skip clean energy and shoot for cheap.

It is a stark contrast to the credits available in Europe that extend many years into the future.  It is in stark contrast even to many third world countries that are funding entire solar energy systems to bring power to homes that have never had electricity.  It is a distinct protective step backwards for the US.

As I got older I started to learn a little bit about solar energy and how it worked, but never gave it a great deal of thought.  I used a solar power calculator going through school, but it had only a minor impact on my life, a little bit more than parachute pants but not as much as disco as fads go.

When I was a teenager I read a book, a short story excerpt from which, was titled The Roads Must Roll by the late Robert A Heinlein.  He is one of my favorite authors and I my youngest daughter carries the middle name of one of the characters from one of his books.  The Roads Must Roll is a book about a future where the highways have been replaced by something like a large conveyor belt system that transports people from city to city at very high speeds.  They were enabled due to the creation of a solar panel that could convert solar light efficiently into electricity.

It was from this story that my romance with the concept of solar energy began.  However, a romantic notion of an energy not well understood is not going to change the world.  These days it is becoming more and more important that we as a society, should find a more efficient source of renewable energy.  Throughout this column I will explore the potential for solar energy.  There are definitely other possibilities and I am not advocating that solar power should be the one and only however it has more than potential.

Companies are today mass manufacturing materials designed to drape skyscrapers and roof houses to collect the energy from the sun and harness it more.  I want to explore these technologies and I want to explore the efforts that the governments of the world are utilizing to spread the adoption of solar power, from tax credits to research and funding and more.  Please join me on this journey and let us find the light!