This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

We've been getting some reader blowback on this op-ed piece from up Logan way, from two conservative think tankers who argue that it is bad for government to use taxpayer money to boost solar and wind power.

— Government forces taxpayers to subsidize alternative energy — Ryan M. Yonk and Josh Smith | Strata | For The Salt Lake Tribune

" ... renewable energy corporations want you — the taxpayer — to fund their investments and bear the risks of their developments ..."

The objections from readers are to the authors' point — a point that ignores the externalized costs of fossil fuels and the billions in taxpayer funds that go to subsidize the oil and gas industry — and to the belief that the tank where Yonk and Smith do their thinking is a Koch brothers stooge.

We are assured that the shop, called Strata, is more independent than that. Maybe.

My take will be online tomorrow, and in print on Sunday.

Meanwhile, here's another view which, quite by coincidence, was published the day before:

— The Conservative Case for Solar Subsidies — Ben Ho | | For The New York Times

" ... Solar, long viewed through the lens of crony capitalism, has shown the ability to inject real market competition in energy distribution, one of the last monopolies in the energy sector, while improving the efficiency of the grid and putting more dollars in the pockets of middle-class Americans. Conservatives, in other words, need to take another look at solar. ...

" ... Ben Ho is an economics professor at Vassar and Columbia. He served as the lead energy economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2006 to 2007 (Bush II)."

Related:

— State, county far too trusting of coal-to-fuel scheme — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

"In a state where foul air quality is clearly public enemy No. 1, it seems ludicrous for any government agency to do anything to encourage any new source of atmospheric pollutants.

"And it smacks of downright malfeasance for relevant jurisdictions to support such schemes with minimal information about how the technology is supposed to work and scant opportunity for public comment.

"Yet the Carbon County Commission has lent its support to a plan by an outfit called Revolution Fuels to use a new process — which it declines to define — to supposedly turn tons of coal into hundreds of thousands of gallons of motor and jet fuel.

"And into hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide, particulates and other forms of pollution. ..."

— State environmental regulators resolve to build public support for Utah's air, water quality in 2016 — Emma Penrod | The Salt Lake Tribune