350.org has launched a big campaign against fossil fuel subsidies. As part of that, it is presenting some pretty startling and inconvenient facts about the cost of these subsidies to the US public. This subsidy counter is especially awesome, yet scary:

Adding on to that, Jamie Henn of 350.org writes:

“Watching that bottom number tick up with every passing second is pretty outrageous, but there’s good news: we now have an opening to end these taxpayer handouts to corporate polluters. A new poll revealed that 70% of Americans — including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans — support ending fossil fuel subsidies.”

Indeed, we do.

As I’m writing this, over 100,000 people have actually signed a petition asking that we cut these fossil fuel subsidies. Of course, if you haven’t already, you can sign it too!

As the petition page notes:

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Keith Ellison launched a new piece of legislation that would repeal $113 billion of tax-breaks, handouts, and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the next 10 years.

Not only is fossil fuel the richest industry on earth, but any of us who pay taxes write it a hefty check each year. It’s as if we’re paying them a performance bonus for wrecking the climate. We’ll never get to renewable energy if we keep handing gobs of money to oil and coal and gas.

The bill would strip away these outrageous subsidies. As you can imagine, the fossil fuel industry is going to fight back hard, so we need to come out as strong as possible.

So, again, go and sign the petition!

For a little more inspiration, though, here’s a signature counter that will apparently automatically update as new signatures come in:

Zachary Shahan (2297 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.