Tax credits! Get them while they're hot!

“Free solar”. The phrase was in a Wall Street Journal headline I saw recently and once it caught my eye it didn’t let go. Not that there was anything surprising about this headline, which, in full, stated Free Solar for Farmers: Climate Law Gives Rich Incentives. If anything, it was entirely predictable. Free solar, free EVs, many of us had the suspicion that the transitioners would have to start giving the stuff away to get people to use it.

Upon reading the story below the headline, however, I discovered I’d been wrong. There was, in fact, nothing free about that solar for farmers. It came very much with a price — a price not particularly well hidden, either, for those cursed with either congenital or acquired observation skills. A price, indeed, celebrated as the greatest thing after sliced bread. Or mortgage-backed securities.

The thing in question is tax credits. But not just any tax credits. The greatest thing since sliced bread these days are transferable, meaning tradable, tax credits. It’s a whole new market! Get your taxes down and support a solar farm! Get them while they’re hot! It’s a win-win-win and nothing could go wrong whatsoever. Au contraire — it will help advance the transition and that’s what we are all here on this planet for, anyway. And we’ll get some free stuff! Totally.