[special-K]

^^^ And there we find one big reason we see the mandates. Can't leave the responsibility to oil companies with one goal in mind, profit.

In Frederick, MD Solarex built a solar facility to make photovoltaic cells, as I recall, in 1980 (43 years ago). That was the first I learned about making electricity from the sun's energy. I had been working for a builder who did passive solar homes, which meant just heat from the sun, the first solar technology. I-70 runs right past the place and you get a full view of it. At some point in the 2000s BP bought Solarex out and right away began construction on an big addition. Before it was completed it started being dismantled, and next came the original facility. Nothing there now. The word was that foreign competition had come along producing cheaper cells so BP was consolidating it's headquarters to a location in Texas. But it sure did seem like BP Solar bought up Solarex just to shut them down. All that investment into buying a leading high tech business at the base of the immensely growing field of solar energy production market, then tear it down claiming foreign competition. You'd think before investing BP would have done a little market survey. I'm sure they did. When you look at all the profit from oil production I guess that money was a drop in the bucket worth investing to keep that bigger train rolling.