Letter to the editor: The dark side of 'green energy'

The average lifespan of a solar panel is only 25 years. Afterward, will the user be willing to invest in all new panels, especially once all the government grants are gone and the green energy bubble has burst?

Eventually, millions of burned-out, Chinese-made solar panels will end up in our landfills. Here are some of the toxins they contain:

• Cadmium telluride

• Copper indium selenide

• Cadmium gallium

• Copper indium gallium

• Hexafluoroethane

• Lead

• Polyvinyl fluoride

• Silicon tetrachloride

Won’t it be nice when all this nasty stuff is leaching into our water supply?

Solar and windmill farms are already a real eyesore. Companies that construct them should be required to post a “rehabilitation bond” to rehab the land and environment once these facilities are finally deserted.

If it wasn’t for taxpayer-funded government grants contrived by left-wing politicians beholden to special interest groups, the entire “green energy” industry would collapse like a house of cards. Similarly, when our government stops paying people to buy electric cars, that industry also will be finished, and we will be stuck with millions of toxic batteries in our junkyards and landfills. Some future!

E. Joseph Biss

Greensburg