In a study covering 2002-2008, the Environmental Law Institute concluded that federal energy subsidies favored fossil fuels over renewables by a wide margin. Moreover, more than half the renewable subsidies went to corn-based ethanol.
• The vast majority of federal subsidies for fossil fuels and renewable energy supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases when used as fuel.
• The federal government provided substantially larger subsidies to fossil fuels than to renewables. Subsidies to fossil fuels—a mature, developed industry that has enjoyed government support for many years—totaled approximately $72 billion over the study period, representing a direct cost to taxpayers.
• Subsidies for renewable fuels, a relatively young and developing industry, totaled $29 billion over the same period.
• Subsidies to fossil fuels generally increased over the study period (though they decreased in 2008), while funding for renewables increased but saw a precipitous drop in 2006-07 (though they increased in 2008). The largest subsidies to fossil fuels were written into the U.S. Tax Code as permanent provisions. By comparison, many subsidies for renewables are time-limited initiatives implemented through energy bills, with expiration dates that limit their usefulness to the renewables industry.• The vast majority of subsidy dollars to fossil fuels can be attributed to just a handful of tax breaks, such as the Foreign Tax Credit ($15.3 billion) and the Credit for Production of Nonconventional Fuels ($14.1 billion, though this credit has since been phased out). The largest of these, the Foreign Tax Credit, applies to the overseas production of oil through an obscure provision of the Tax Code, which allows energy companies to claim a tax credit for payments that would normally receive less-beneficial tax treatment.
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Green diary rescue appears twice weekly in this time slot. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it. The rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
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Crashing Vor gave us a good warning in "Over": "BP's new well cap is in place and pressure tests have begun, with very appropriate caution. If the tests indicate that the well bore and casings have sufficient integrity to withstand the internal pressures of the well, there is a chance that the spigot may get turned off this week.As wonderful as that news is, it will bring a chorus of sighs from the media, the government, the oil industry and well-meaning Gulf Coast residents, a chorus singing, 'It's over!' That chorus will echo throughout the mediasphere. And it will be dead wrong."
In the EcoAdvocates series, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse offered some hope that Obama May Reverse Bush on Indigenous Rights: "Bush voted against UNDRIP (the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) ostensibly because the declaration was subject to 'conflicting interpretations and debate about its application' and therefore not 'capable of implementation.' If this standard applied to the U.S. Constitution, it would not exist. In reality, Bush did not like that UNDRIP recognizes a range of rights that address corporate and governmental plundering of resources as well as abuse and discrimination. Elections have consequences. President Obama recognizes that UNDRIP provides a framework for addressing the rights of indigenous peoples so he is now reviewing whether the U.S. should join 144 other countries with its endorsement."
greendem informed us about Moms Turned Mountaineers in Climb Against Coal: "We are four Washington moms, who, on Saturday July 17, will attempt to summit Mount Rainier with a message for our Governor. Our Climb Against Coal challenges Governor Gregoire to close Washington’s largest toxic polluter and point source of deadly carbon: the TransAlta coal-fired power plant in Centralia."
continued at Daily Kos....
