Why Care about Fossil Fuel Subsidies?
Fossil fuels are subsidised in much of the world, causing billions of tonnes of additional CO2 emission–ending those subsidies could provide part of the answer to solving climate change. According to theGuardian (Jan 12th, 2012)
Fossil Fuels are subsidised at 500% more than green renewable energy
Globally Oil, Natural Gas and Coal are subsidised at 500% more than green renewable energy.
Also continued government political support for this imbalance also becomes obvious when one sees that the fossil fuel industries outspend/lobby the fledging clean energy companies by a factor of 12 or as high as 20 in the USA according to a database maintained by OpenSecrets.org.
Since 1998 the oil & gas and electric utilities sectors has spent a whopping $2.3 billion to influencing federal laws and regulations. This should be of major concern to everyone not just those in the Occupy Movement. The utility companies, which have been given a monopoly in many areas of the world should not be permitted to spend money on behalf of their stock owners to influence politicians, especially with money obtained from billing their customers. Just one more reason to go off-grid (solar, wind and geothermal etc.) so a portion of your electric bill doesn’t go towards government policies you don’t support.
The biggest players:
The top five spenders last year on lobbying in the oil and gas sector were ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Koch Industries.
The top five spenders in the electric utilities sector were Southern Company, Edison Electric Institute, American Electric Power, PG&E Corp and Duke Energy.
The top five spenders on lobbying in the renewable energy sector were the American Wind Association, Solar Energy Industries Association, Clean Energy Group, the National Biodiesel Board and Growth Energy.
Green-Eco-EV News Reporting by Ken Burridge
CNN contributor, Green journalist, photographer, author and activist. Mr Burridge’s travels have taken him to over 30 countries and 300+ major cities. He is originally from the USA, but has been residing in Australia for the last six years. Connect to Ken Burridge via: Twitter, facebook, or website
