Friday, September 25, 2009

Lion's Share of Government Energy Subsidies support Foreign Oil

I'll try to post the graphic that compliments this, but here are some quick facts:

1) Fossil fuels benefited from approximately $72 billion over the seven-year (fiscal years 2002-08) period.
2) Subsidies for renewable fuels totaled $29 billion.
3) More than half the subsidies for renewables—$16.8 billion—are attributable to corn-based ethanol, the climate effects of which are hotly disputed.
4) Of the fossil fuel subsidies, $70.2 billion went to traditional sources—such as coal and oil—and $2.3 billion went to carbon capture and storage, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.
5) Government energy subsidies highly favored energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases over sources that would decrease our climate footprint.

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