Continuing to resist renewable energy, Senate Republicans stalled the renewable energy tax breaks that would provide funding for renewable energy development next year. The Senate blocked progress on a big renewable subsidy bill, allowing it to languish further.

The problem with issuing a blanket dismissal of new taxes is that some  are useful in send price signals to the market and don't particularly hurt consumers. For instance, carbon taxes of the type in the bill are useful because they help to make fossil fuels more expensive than the subsidized renewables. Right now, fossil fuels are subsidized to be cheaper than renewables where, in a free market, renewables would already be solidly cost-effective by now.

Tax credits for renewable energy are the lifeblood of renewable deals. Right now, I am working an internship observing a deal in which millions of dollars in capital and many megawatts of solar energy depend on whether or not these tax breaks are renewed. Businesses want to transact, they want to move things forward; the renewable energy industry WANTS to grow. Why the powers-that-be are willing to subsidize the fossil industry by 20 billion dollars a year but not boost renewable energy by a fraction of that is frankly baffling to me. Why it's okay to tax renewables but not fossil is a similar mystery. The money to be made and the earth to be saved belong to all of us.