Carter started the Dept of Energy with plans to give tax breaks on solar panels for anyone who wanted to take advantage of the subsidies. I don't think Carter intended for the Dept of Energy to become the "foreign oil favoring" nightmare it has become. Carter even had solar panels put on the roof of the white house. Reagan came in and tore them all down. Sure he shouldn't be using tax payers money to put them up...but why spend even more money tearin them down if they were already up there?
I'm not nuts for Carter, but I can't help but wonder if we'd all be running more electric cars and powering our homes with more solar today had Reagan not won way back then. He really did have an interesting energy plan the more I read about him.