Globe and Mail: The Saudi Arabian oil minister's recent comment that the world's largest petroleum producer sees a postfossil-fuel world in which his country becomes a solar-power superpower must have comforted climate activists that even the worst offenders can come around. After all, what could be more redemptive than turning abandoned oil fields into solar farms?
Solar power's image as "clean" and "limitless" has led princes and politicians alike to dole out huge subsidies to bask in its glow. Under the 2009...