SOLAR ECONOMICS

All of which is not enough government for Mr Denis Hayes, the ideologist directing the DoE's Solar Energy Research Institute, not even when it spends $500,000 a year to push the energy that needs pushing. In an interview with Stevens Energy Forum (vol.3, no.1), he complains that "every time a business buys petroleum, coal or natural gas to provide energy that could be supplied by the sun, that firm can deduct the cost of the fuel as a business expense. Since solar energy involves no fuel, it does not have this advantage."

This is a most interesting "institutional obstacle," as Hayes terms it; his economics is as brilliant as his solar physics. Fortunately, help is on the way. Mr Gordon S. Jones of Arlington, Va., in a letter to the editor of SEF, invites Mr. Hayes to refer companies willing to pay for solar energy to him:

"I have solar energy available at a wide range of prices..."he writes. "I can guarantee that the price will be high enough that the company can obtain a substantial tax deduction for the cost of purchased fuel...

"With this inequity eliminated, I hope we will hear no more about the tax biases against solar energy. As does Mr. Hayes, I think solar should compete on an equal footing..."