I think conservatives have finally hit the end of Yoda's "fear to anger to hatred to suffering" pipeline. It's not just that they don't understand solar or are scared of solar, they actively despise it because it represents their sworn enemies. Even if solar would demonstrably make their lives better by lowering their energy bill, they can never ever admit that they were wrong about it.

I don't think it's a coincidence that more jackasses started rolling coal in the past 10 years. I can only say that anecdotally, but I never saw it a single time as a kid before 2016, while I've seen it at least a dozen times in the past five years just driving around my own home town. It costs them hundreds of dollars to modify their vehicles this way, but they still do it out of spite.

I'm including three articles that back me up, even though I couldn't find any hard statistics about their prevalence. Emphasis mine.

While VW made international headlines in 2015 for intentionally misleading customers and cheating emissions standards and through the use of “defeat device” software, a subculture of American motorists, those who “roll coal,” are out to leave an even blacker mark on diesel.

https://journals.law.unc.edu/ncjolt/blogs/regulatory-pressures-coal/

Various media accounts have highlighted coal rolling cases as politically motivated, targeting those as seen as environmentally friendly like cyclists and owners of EVs. Diesel drivers have also rolled coal on Black Lives Matter protesters and others.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-red-light-district/202404/the-cruel-practice-of-rolling-coal

Basically, the Justice Department signals that it will turn a blind eye to environmental crimes in the future. According to CBS News, the decision could impact more than a dozen pending criminal cases and over 20 ongoing investigations targeting companies and individuals who allegedly sold aftermarket defeat devices.

... the administration appears to send a strong message that it no longer wants to hear anything about the environment. If anything, it seems the US government deeply resents anything with words like "clean" or "green" in its name or description.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/doj-makes-coal-rolling-legal-again-by-killing-cases-cracking-down-on-emissions-cheating-264515.html