fossil fuel subsidies

Subsidies via Shutterstock

Now that the presidential election is over, perhaps we’ll see some reality injected into our energy policy.  The existing energy policy professes to encourage “energy independence”.  That policy in action embeds permanent subsidies, tax credits, and tax breaks in the US federal tax code for highly profitable fossil fuel...[read more]

Irena Misevic/Shutterstock

Something crucial was missing from the first-ever global inventory of tax breaks for oil companies and other fossil-fuel subsidies when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released it last fall. The report detailed all the subtle and not-so-subtle supports for production and consumption of oil,...[read more]

Rep. Keith EllisonEarlier this month, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced legislation to eliminate billions of dollars in tax breaks, R&D funding, and other subsidies and loopholes that benefit the fossil fuel industry.Midwest Energy News spoke with Rep. Ellison this week about the...[read more]

NASA's James Hansen  Fossil fuel companies get between $400 and $500 billion in subsidies per year. This must end. The first major scientist to alert the world to the dangers of climate change, NASA's James Hansen, has issued a new challenge to the world based on the latest science surrounding the issue. In a new paper...[read more]

Survey Says…If you were to survey people and ask the question “Should we subsidize oil companies?” — the overwhelming majority would undoubtedly respond “No!” The notion that we are subsidizing oil companies generates outrage in many people, but in this article I will show why these subsidies aren’t going to go away any time soon. The...[read more]

World leaders have just come back from the G20 where they took some mixed steps to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies (as I discussed here).  They also reaffirmed that climate change and clean energy are important issues.  But a new analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that they have their work cut out for them as...[read more]

First, don’t get all upset! I admit, I just wrote this title to rope you in and peak your interest because I’m assuming you think that renewable energy is awesome and needs some incentives to get the industry kick started and to decrease the learning curve, test out new technologies yadda yadda yadda. I agree with you. Here’s the...[read more]

So now that everything is back to normal, what did the G20 actually accomplish and what did it not (from the Green perspective)?Done:1. Replacing G7/8 with the G20Since 1975, the Group of 7 richest countries in the world has met to discuss the fate of the world. The less rich countries and the emerging nations have long been ired at...[read more]