Every day, people all over this country turn their scrap copper into money, besides modern permanent magnet motors use half the copper of those old clunker motors.
As for subsidies, the depletion allowance for petroleum alone, not even counting natural gas is $60 billion, and then there's the "Research" depreciation, etc., etc. If consumers paid full price, gasoline would cost twice as much.
As for coal vs solar? It takes approximately a pound of coal to generate a one Kwh of electricity. It takes 84 lbs of coal to produce a pound of purified silicon. That pound of silicon can make 1.25 acres of solar panel (.45 hectares or 4500 sq meters), the average solar panel is about 1,74 sq. meters and generates on average 1,5 Kwh per day so a pound of silicon can generate roughly 2,500 Kwh per day or the same energy as 2,500 pounds of coal, day after day after day, for at least 25 years or 9125 days.
There is literally no comparison of the overall efficiency of solar over coal, none.
In fact, it is so favorable that using coal to make purified silicon is entirely justified.
