So, on another forum, someone threw out the tired "Oil and Gas subsidies" red herring again. I asked them to give me a link to somethig showing them.
She gave me
Earth Track | Earth Track is your primary source for understanding and monitoring environmentally-harmful subsidies.
Here is my response
Quote:
Picking the first article, it had no list of subsidies.
August Oil Subsidy Roundup | Earth Track
Picking another link inside that article lead to this link
http://greenscissors.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Green_Scissors_2011.pdf
Reading through this, it takes getting to page 9 before a list of subsidies.
The largest is LIFO accounting at $29B over 5 years. Of course, reading the foot notes it shows that the $29B is for ALL INDUSTRIES not just fossil fuel. So the article exaggerating the subsidies.
#2 is similar, except again it is a general accounting rule that applies even to solar industries
#3 is a cost of doing business and is deductible
#4 is nothing more than inventory reduction allowance the same as all industries are allowed.
Removing the top 4 reduces the articles $61B over 5 years down by $48B. This leaves $13B of which I can already see that over 1/2 is again standard aacounting rules which apply to all industries.
The only one that seems to fit is "Oil Royalty Relief" at $4B over 5 years.
Here is a description: Deep Water Royalty Relief Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
At $800M per year. I certainly agree we can afford to get rid of this.
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