Uploaded subsidy-related resources, whether via actual file upload or link to resource on another website.
Presentation at the NPEC Public Policy Fellowship Retreat in March 2017. The meeting was convened and hosted by the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center. The slides evaluates many of the arguments people make to support increased subsidies to nuclear and finds them wanting.
Existing trade agreements have strict rules, some enforcement mechanisms, and the majority of the world's nations already as signatories. They offer a potentially powerful leverage point to address a wide array of subsidies to energy, including those flowing to fossil fuels. In practice, the trade agreements have not yet proven effective at accelerating reform -- though the potential is what makes this workshop and its associated write-up useful to include in the Earth Track subsidy library. Below is the description from the organizers:
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This book proposes a simple framework for understanding the political economy of subsidy reform and applies it to four in-depth country studies covering more than 30 distinct episodes of reform. Five key lessons emerge. First, energy subsidies often follow a life cycle, beginning as a way to stabilize prices and reduce exposure to price volatility for low-income consumers. However, as they grow in size and political power, they become entrenched. Second, subsidy reform strategies vary because the underlying political economy problems vary.
This article provides a review of global energy subsidies—of definitions and estimation techniques, their type and scope, their drawbacks, and effective ways to reform them. Based on an assessment of both policy reports and peer-reviewed studies, this article presents evidence that energy subsidies could reach into the trillions of dollars each year. It also highlights how most subsidies appear to offer net costs to society, rather than benefits, in the form of government deficits, increased waste, shortages of energy fuels, and aggravated environmental impacts, among others.
The United States now produces as much crude oil as ever – over 3.4 billion barrels in 2015, just shy of the 3.5 billion record set in 1970. Indeed, the U.S. has become the world’s No. 1 oil and gas producer. The oil production boom has been aided by tax provisions and other subsidies that support private investment in infrastructure for oil exploration and development. Federal tax preferences, for example, enable oil and gas producers to deduct capital expenditures faster, or at greater levels, than standard tax accounting rules typically allow, boosting investment returns.
The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016 (WNISR) provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear power plant data, including information on operation, production and construction. The WNISR assesses the status of new-build programs in current nuclear countries as well as in potential newcomer countries. The WNISR2016 edition includes again an assessment of the financial status of many of the biggest industrial players in the sector. This edition also provides a Chernobyl Status Report, 30 years after the accident that led to the contamination of a large part of Europe.
Federal law requires coal companies to reclaim and restore land and water resources that have been degraded by mining. But at many sites, reclamation occurs slowly, if it all. Mining companies are required to post performance bonds to ensure the successful completion of reclamation efforts should they become insolvent, but regulators have discretion to accept “self-bonds,” which allow many companies to operate without posting any surety or collateral.
In January 2016 the US Secretary of the Interior announced a moratorium on new coal leasing on public lands pending completion of a comprehensive review. Nearly 90% of coal produced from public lands is from leases in the Powder River Basin (PRB) of Wyoming and Montana.
Although nuclear power is a source of low carbon electricity, it is by no means a clear solution to the challenge we face in reducting greenhouse gas emissions. This presentation discusses common metrics to assess the most cost-efficient source of ghg emissions and reviews multiple studies indicating that new reactors are an expensive option relative to alternatives, and getting more so each year. Cost escalation, lengthening delivery times on reactor projects, and oft-ignored concerns about proliferation create significant headwinds for the nuclear pathway. In contrast, competitors cont
The powerful fossil fuel interests that reap huge subsidies on the federal level have been doing the very same thing on the state level in the US.
In many states, the coal, oil and natural gas industries are among the most powerful industries, and have been benefiting from political deals for decades.