I would imagine some of you expect today's column to have to do with our country's total conversion to becoming a Banana Republic. that would be easy but as I'm writing this column there's still more information to come out and I have my monologue on tomorrow's radio show to cover that. I actually want to touch on this push for so-called green, renewable energy. The spending and other provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act include quite a bit of money and promotion for solar and wind energy. It also includes incentives to purchase electric vehicles, but the limitations are so strict it doesn't make sense for anyone to purchase an electric vehicle.

I put a post on one of my social media accounts this week that said if solar- and wind-generated electricity were such great things, why isn't the federal government fitting their buildings with solar panels? Shouldn't they be leading by example? I wouldn't want the Department of Defense or even the state department to be dependent upon these renewable energy sources because they need to be running at peak efficiency all the time, but what about the National Archives or the Smithsonian or the Senate/House office buildings?

Jimmy Carter was the first to convert building to solar, but Ronald Reagan removed those panels when he got elected. The Second George Bush put some panels on the White House maintenance buildings as well as a couple of other federal buildings. But the efforts of the federal government have been sorely lacking. An acquaintance, who based upon my experience with him, lives to try and get me in a 'gotcha' type moment, began pointing to several articles about the Federal government's use of solar energy. He just made my point for me and thus had to resort to name calling.

But I will let you decide. The federal government owns 190 buildings within the District of Columbia. 18 of those buildings are partially powered by solar energy. That's less than 9.5% of owned buildings using solar energy. Of the 35 million square feet that they own or rent within the District of Columbia, Less than 5% has any solar panels to provide electricity. If solar or wind energy is so fantastic, why isn't the GSA putting it on every building?

My acquaintance then pointed out that based upon his research, Washington DC has more solar panels installed on buildings than any other similarly sized city. I couldn't find that data after doing a Google search and I opined that on my recent visit I certainly didn't see a lot of solar panels on privately owned buildings or homes. Rather than point out some facts or articles that he had read, he mocked me asking if I had climbed on the roofs of the homes. Not many but again you could also see many of the roofs walking along the street so I didn't think it was necessary.

It would seem to me that if more people put solar panels on their home or the federal government put solar panels on the buildings they own, not only in Washington DC but around the country, that might take some of the strain off the electrical grid, reducing the need to have rolling brown outs. It might also help with their push to add millions of electric vehicles which are dependent upon the grid for power. But that seems too logical, so I'm certain that I'm wrong.

I'm not surprised though; politicians never live by the rules that they impose upon us.