A recent news item — €70 Billion A Year In EU Health Damage Caused By Vehicle Emissions — reminded me of the following article, which is a piece I wrote in 2016 to try to more directly communicate the issue to people. Initially, the opening line below was the title.
A highly misleading anti-cleantech talking point is that renewable energy “relies on government subsidies,” and that all of the renewable energy growth in recent years is attributable to them. In actuality, fossil fuels and nuclear power have been receiving government support for much longer than renewable energy has. They have received much more government subsidy historically speaking than renewables. And these dirty energy options continue to receive a tremendous amount of government support even though they are overripe industries in many regards.
Originally published on Skeptical Science. A new paper published in Climatic Change estimates that when we account for the pollution costs associated with our energy sources, gasoline costs an extra $3.80 per gallon, diesel an additional $4.80 per gallon, coal a further 24 cents per kilowatt-hour, and natural gas another 11 cents per … [continued]
