Government subsidies are everywhere, but some are more indirect (e.g., environmental remediation after companies doing resource extraction take their profits and close up shop leaving a mess behind).

Solar subsidies have paid off in helping build demand and now solar gear is really cheap and the cost is split on the labor to install it (creating local jobs).

I'm going to guess that your folks consume Fox Entertainment programming? They are rather consistent in denigrating renewable energy: https://www.businessinsider.com/fact-check-fox-personalities...

This topic has unfortunately been highly politicized and I can only assume it's because the petro ruling class does not want to let go of their monetary pipeline and buys influence in the political realm to maintain it.