Earth Track Blog

There was very promising motion on subsidy reform contained in this March 2011 letter to Congress signed by a large number of conservative organizations (as well as others). Since structural reform of subsidies will require a broad political coalition, the variety of groups signing on to this letter...

One of the striking findings in the review of subsidy reporting to the G20 that Earth Track and Oil Change International published a few months back was how little subsidy information the countries actually made public. This information holdback is clearly detrimental to meeting the commitment all...

I'll post much more on my recently released study on subsidies to nuclear power over the next few days. However, I wanted to take a momentary break from the world of natural resource subsidies to congratulate my friend Eric Olson and Vertex Pharmaceuticals on the success of their phase 3 trials for...

Obama's 2012 budget proposal, released today, continues his multi-year push to boost subsidies to nuclear power. He continues to push for $36 billion in new loan guarantees for nuclear new-build. Outside of macro-economic meltdowns these guarantees represent some of the largest government subsidies...

During the early part of 2010, when the volumetric ethanol excise tax exemption (VEETC) looked like it was heading towards elimination, ethanol industry contortionist Bob Dinneen of the Renewable Fuels Association worked hard to paint the subsidy as vital to all things American. In yet another RFA...

Last April when dried distillers grains DDGs started showing up in far flung markets, the industry touted it as an example of their global competitiveness. I was thinking subsidy arbitrage was more likely. Seems like the subsidies are closer to the truth. Philip Brasher summarizes the pending trade...

Kenneth Feinberg, the adminstrator of BP's $20 billion fund to compensate parties for damages from the Horizon oil spill, is a fascinating guy. Not so much for his current role (though it is certainly important), but rather for his willingness to step in to administer settlements to victims'...

A quite interesting summary of the challenges associated with the Iranian nuclear program has been written by Gregory Jones, and released by NPEC. Some key points: The Iranian production rate of reactor-grade enriched fuel has been increasing, not decreasing. The conversion of fuel grade to 20%...

A recent post by Ken Cohen, head PR guy at ExxonMobil, laments the temporary shut-down of offshore oil and gas drilling and its impact on all of us -- not them, but us, through lower federal taxes, higher deficits, less jobs, and less security. Cohen titles his entry " A trillion-dollar missed...

I should have linked to this last month, but better late than never. Robert Rapier has done a nice review of the Renewable Fuel Association's rather exuberant claims on the impacts of killing VEETC. Given that the mandate still requires the use of almost all of the ethanol produced domestically, the...

Nicholas Donofrio, the keynote speaker at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum, says nuclear is the key towards solving the US' energy challenges. Baseload. Green. All problems soluble with American ingenuity. Ending subsidies to nuclear power and making it compete with all options on the supply and...

A number of recent articles on subsidies going wrong provide a useful set of examples on how and how not to structure these programs. Examples include Evergreen Solar, GM and Chrysler, tax credits for film production, and Goldman Sachs. 1) What happens with hopes or hype crash with market reality...

The number of people calling for eliminating all subsidies to energy seems to be growing. Jeffrey Leonard of the Global Environment Fund calls for it here in the Washington Monthly. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute argues for it in the Weekly Standard. Ken Green of the American...

Improved visibility on tax expenditures was one of my biggest hopes for Pew's Subsidyscope when I joined the advisory board, so I am very happy to see the first step of this launched. Have a look at it here. With an aggregate value of more than $1 trillion in 2009 (see page 12), it is high time to...

Anybody who has worked in the environmental field is used to spending months or years on a project that may lead to little measurable improvement in our actual environmental quality. Bills get blocked. Studies sit on shelves, at least until they hit the circular file. The sun goes up every day, but...

The march to E15-ity and beyond continues, with DOE submitting vehicle tests for how older cars performed with the higher blends of ethanol. EPA allowed blends up to 15% for model 2007 and later vehicles in October 2010, and is expected to rule on earlier models (2001 and later) this month. A few...

One important provision dropped from the Senate's "compromise" tax bill was a requirement that the the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Government Accountability Office actually evaluate tax provisions regularly "extended": by Congress to see if they are accomplishing what they were originally...

Spineless subsidies part 1: Ethanol Ethanol blenders credit moves forward towards extension at current rates in the Senate. Even more ludicrous since even without the excise tax credit subsidy we are still forced to buy the stuff at above market prices under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard...

Tomorrow's event (November 30th), titled Department of Energy Loan Guarantees: Should Taxpayers Bear the Risks for the Energy Sector with Loan Guarantees? A Conservative Take, looks to be an interesting one tomorrow. The discussion brings together panelists from the Heritage Foundation, the National...

Another study ( summary, full report) indicating that biofuel mandates (this time in the EU) will result in extra land conversion, and associated large emissions of greenhouse gases. The analysis, by the Institute for European Environmental Policy, found that between 4.1 and 6.9 million hectares of...