Goldwater Challenged by Conservatives on Solar Energy

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The government waste-watchdogs at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) today released an open letter to Barry Goldwater Jr. formally challenging him to publicly debate a wide range of solar-related topics (click here for the full text of the letter). In addition, the group announced the launch of a new website and project, SolarSecrets.org. The website will help bring balance to the often distorted, one-sided, overly-sunny way solar energy issues are presented to the public, which creates false perceptions and unrealistic expectations. SolarSecrets.org will take an in-depth look at the “darker side of solar,” including hidden fiscal and environmental costs and the political favoritism and cronyism that keep the industry afloat. The website will post issue briefs on industry “secrets” and host a blog and news aggregator. 

The “Goldwater” name is still so revered in Arizona that many conservatives might shy away from debating Barry Goldwater Jr., the late senator’s son and namesake, on whether his backing of a government-supported solar industry contradicts the ideas most people associate with his name. But not TPA , who responded to the most recent of many personalized attacks the younger Barry has leveled against those disagreeing with his odd, unGoldwater-like position on the issue, saying that it fears his promotion of “government-supported solar” threatens to water down “the Goldwater brand and legacy.”

The group says in the letter that it hopes “a respectful, substantive airing of differences” between conservatives “will help Americans gain a deeper, more balanced understanding of the appropriate role solar power can play in the nation’s energy portfolio.” Goldwater’s “sometimes personal, off-topic attacks,” on those who disagree with him on the issue, “seem designed to generate more heat than light, which does the average energy consumer no good,” says TPA. “Agreeing to our challenge will test how your sometimes below-the-belt rhetoric and tactics stand up to scrutiny and challenge in a fair forum.”

“Some might wonder why we’re asking tough questions about something as apparently warm-and-fuzzy as solar energy,” says TPA President David Williams. “But solar has today become a big, booming business and self-serving lobby, which depends on diverting taxpayer and ratepayer dollars for its survival. When Big Sun weans itself from Big Government, and adopts a self-sustaining business model, we’ll pull the plug on this project. Until then, it’s everybody’s business to closely monitor how the solar racket works.”