Guess Which Energy Sectors Get The Most Subsidies? Hint: NOT Renewables

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A 2010 report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance found globally fossil fuel subsidies were 12 times higher than those for alternative energy. Governments in 2009 gave $43 billion to $46 billion of support to renewable energy through tax credits, guaranteed electricity prices and alternative energy credits, the group said in its report. The U.S. offered $18 billion in subsidies for renewable energy that year. According to the International Energy Agency, $557 billion was spent in 2008 to subsidize fossil fuels.

And that’s only direct subsidies. When you add in other costs, such as protecting shipping lanes for tankers and a foreign policy that must curry favor with oil producing countries, the so-called hidden costs (costs not included in the price consumers pay at the pump) can soar to $3 to $8 per gallon of gasoline. Clearly, these costs aren’t passed on to consumers at the gas pump. Rather taxpayers foot the bill through federal spending on defense, transportation and other government expenses.

Journalist Peter Maass, author of “Crude World,” has spent more than a decade researching oil supply and prices. In a 2010 Foreign Policy article, he cited a two-decades-old study by the Government Accountability Office that in 1991 estimated that between 1980 and 1990 the U.S. spent a total of $366 billion to defend oil supplies in the Middle East. “An honest accounting would do a lot more than tired platitudes because it would force us to confront the hidden costs that we don’t see at the pump,” he wrote.

Beyond finances, there are serious health consequences to our dependence on fossil fuels. The burning of oil, gas and coal to fire power plants and cars and trucks are the biggest sources of air pollution in the U.S. This pollution is responsible for increased cases of asthma and other breathing problems, as well as premature deaths among the most vulnerable.

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http://bangordailynews.com/2015/02/19/opinion/editorials/energy-subsidies-arent-just-for-renewables-fossil-fuels-get-the-lions-share/