GoodFuels

Shocking Report About Energy Subsidies

The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) has published shocking news in a new report: federal subsidies for fossil fuels are twice that of renewables.

According to a summary on the ELI report store website:

The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research released by ELI. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals that the lion’s share of energy subsidies supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels benefited from approximately $72 billion over the seven-year period, while subsidies for renewable fuels totaled only $29 billion.

ELI Senior Attorney John Pendergrass says the report indicates a lack of support for more environmentally friendly energy sources. “The combination of subsidies—or ‘perverse incentives’— to develop fossil fuel energy sources, and a lack of sufficient incentives to develop renewable energy and promote energy efficiency, distorts energy policy in ways that have helped cause, and continue to exacerbate, our climate change problem,” Pendergrass said in a press release. “With climate change and energy legislation pending on Capitol Hill, our research suggests that more attention needs to be given to the existing perverse incentives for ‘dirty’ fuels in the U.S. Tax Code.”

Not surprisingly, the oil industry is disputing the report’s findings. “This study is an irresponsible rendition based on a contorted recycling of government data that should never be used to craft national policy - especially a tax increase on the oil and natural gas industry that would raise energy costs and kill jobs,” said American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard in a statement.

Irresponsible? Or just the truth? You be the judge. Download the report for free here.