Comments on: Twitter Storm to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies

By: Parichag

Parichag — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:20:00 +0000

This is some environmental gobble gook. What are the subsidies for? Do they use them to research clean oil technologies, are they used to subsidize basic research into safer cleaner ways of providing energy? Are the subsidies helping to create jobs throughout the economy? Are the subsidies related to other technologies like software development, global supply chain effectiveness, automotive technology upgrades? Any of these types of subsidies have intended and unintended consequences. BTW, coal is not used in the variety of ways as oil and natural gas, so obviously there are more subsidies going to oil and natural gas research and development.
No, I don’t work for the oil industry in any way, but to reduce the subsidies may have unintended consequences – the least of which may be a massive layoffs or even the death of certain other industries like plastics or roads, construction packaging or even basic research. Reducing subsidies on one industry ignores the possible unintended consequences of economic disasters in other industries and even some governments might be impacted by this.

By: Bill_Woods

Bill_Woods — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 05:44:00 +0000

According to the OECD report of a while ago, direct subsidies for fossil fuels in 2010 from Canadian governments (millions of Canadian dollars):

Coal: 9.72
Oil: 1356
Gas: 654

from Tables 4.1–3 on pages 82–84 of http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/40/35/48805150.pdf
from http://www.oecd.org/document/32/0,3746,en_21571361_48776931_48783776_1_1_1_1,00.html

Per unit of consumption, that works out to about
Coal: 9.72 M$ / 52.5 Mt = 0.19 CND per ton
Oil: 1356 M$ / 788 Mbbl = 1.72 CND per barrel
Gas: 654 M$ / 2,936 Bft^3 = 0.22 CND per thousand cubic feet

http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=CA&trk=p1

By: The Oil Drum | Drumbeat: June 9, 2012

The Oil Drum | Drumbeat: June 9, 2012 — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 14:47:40 +0000

[…] […]

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 11:09:00 +0000

yep, we just covered that as well: http://cleantechnica.com/2012/06/08/leveling-the-energy-playing-field-senate-bill-to-allow-renewable-energy-mlps/

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 11:08:00 +0000

i don’t. i know some folks are working on a comprehensive wiki on energy subsidies, but no announcements yet on it… in development.

By: Cleantech & The Wizard of Oz - CleanTechnica

Cleantech & The Wizard of Oz - CleanTechnica — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:42:25 +0000

[…] political leaders we have are yet to show that they care enough about these crises to cut fossil fuel subsidies and push cleantech into the position it is set to […]

By: yoshhash

yoshhash — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 19:24:00 +0000

What an awesome and well-focused campaign! Does anyone have a link to a current compilation of what these subsidies are around the world, (ie Canada?) Info I am finding is quite spotty.

By: dennis baker

dennis baker — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Bill Would Allow Renewable Energy Projects to Use Tax Benefits Reserved for Fossil Fuels
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41769.pdf