Final Word from Monday, March 16, 2015
The solar "tunnel" became such a hot political issue because everyone understood it. All you needed to know was that your energy costs were going to skyrocket because of subsidies paid to people close to ČEZ and the ERÚ energy regulator. Andrej Babiš jumped on the bandwagon in May 2010 when he spoke of it as the "solar super tunnel." He wanted to draw attention away from the way biofuel was squeezing edible crops out of the fields. For him, those solar panels were taking up precious space that could be used for rapeseed. The special tax treatment for biofuel has quietly turned into Babiš's own super tunnel, but it's much harder to understand. One must know what first- and second-generation biofuel is; what role Čepro and its EuroOil gas stations play; what kind of history Babiš has with Unipetrol; and how the tax break makes its way back to Babiš. He's counting on no one being able to explain it in a headline. [Czech Republic rape renewable energy]
Glossary of difficult words
tunnel - a Czech term for asset-stripping or theft from the state budget;
to skyrocket - (of a price, rate or amount) to increase very steeply or rapidly;
to jump/climb on the bandwagon - to join others in doing or supporting something fashionable or likely to be successful.