The numbers are in and the verdict is out: Much of the money that governments spend subsidizing solar energy is wasted.
So argues author and Copenhagen Consensus Center director Dr. Bjorn Lomborg in the pages of The Wall Street Journal earlier this week. He points out that Spain, for example, spent more money subsidizing its conversion to solar power than the country spent on its entire system of higher education last year, and that here in the U.S, we spent $14 billion subsidizing renewable energies in 2010 -- $16.5 billion if you count nuclear energy. That was more than four times the $4 billion spent on tax breaks for the entire, more energy-rich, fossil-fuels industry.
All of which may be true, but we're not talking about wasted tax dollars, today. Today, we're talking about waste, period.
Cash from trash
Specifically, we're talking about Waste Management (NYSE: WM ) , America's biggest trash hauler by revenues -- and apparently, nearly as big an energy producer as the nation's entire solar industry.