A friend of mine recently told me she was going to have a solar company come out and give her an estimate on installing solar panels on her roof. I never followed up to see what happened, but if she’s still considering it she might want to read the fine print. The Daily Signal reported that many of these companies, which receive big taxpayer subsidies, are gouging consumers with hidden costs. Oh, and it’s not just the consumers with solar panels, but their neighbors who get stuck sharing the cost.

Thanks to the slew of solar industry subsidies, homeowners can effectively contract with solar leasing firms that will install those panels for free. But they often get gouged later, as do taxpayers in one of the great corporate welfare scams of modern times.

Shady Solar Leasing Firms?

Congress is investigating if the industry is ensnaring homeowners in green energy “teaser” loans.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, plus 11 House colleagues fired off a letter last month to the Federal Trade Commission asking if the booming solar leasing market — a “new industry with a limited track record and little regulatory oversight — poses a “considerable risk” to homeowners.

Some leasing companies “sold large numbers of subprime mortgages to unsuspecting homeowners in the runup to the subprime mortgage crisis,” the investigators have found.

California and Louisiana homeowners have filed class-action lawsuits vs. solar leasing companies alleging fraudulent marketing campaigns that don’t warn customers of true costs and risks.

Read the whole thing, there is much more, including how utility companies are forced to buy solar power at inflated rates, which must then be passed on to all of their customers. The solar companies also market heavily in areas like mine, where it’s not always that sunny. Hey, why not when other people foot the bill? What a racket!