subsidy reform
Obama’s Bid to End Oil Subsidies Revives Debate
When he releases his new budget in two weeks, President Obama will propose doing away with roughly $4 billion a year in subsidies and tax breaks for oil companies, in his third effort to eliminate federal support for an industry that remains hugely profitable. Previous efforts have run up against bipartisan opposition in Congress and heavy lobbying from producers of oil, natural gas and coal.
$1 Trillion in Profits and Still at the Trough: Oil and Gas in the 21st Century
The Democratic Staff of the Committee on Natural Resources of the U.S.
Corruption and fraud in agricultural and energy subsidies: identifying the key issues
Government subsidy programs, like many areas of government expenditure, are at risk of corruption and fraud that cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The extent to which these two factors affect subsidy policy is difficult to fully estimate because it is not commonly detected or reported to official sources. Precise figures are difficult to obtain, and governments are also often unwilling to publicize occurrences of fraud and corruption out of fear of bad publicity or public concern at their lack of oversight.
Quantifying Support to Energy – Why is It Needed?
Keynote presentation at the OECD's expert workshop on estimating subsidies to fossil fuels, held in November 2010.
The Scope of Fossil-Fuel Subsidies in 2009 and a Roadmap for Phasing out Fossil-Fuel Subsidies
This is the second detailed report on fossil fuel subsidies prepared by the assigned agencies to support the G20 subsidy phase-out commitment. It was prepared to support the November 2010 meeting of the G20 in South Korea. The report estimates the scope of fossil-fuel subsidies in 2009 and provides a roadmap for phasing-out fossil-fuel subsidies. The IEA estimates that direct subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by artificially lowering end-user prices for fossil fuels amounted to $312 billion in 2009. In addition, a number of mechanisms can be identified, also in advanced econ
Green view: How to save $300 billion
LAST time it met, in 2009, the G20 took a stand against a little discussed problem that unites environmentalists and economists: fossil-fuel subsidies. Over the course of the subsequent year, the nations contributed to a list of the “inefficient” subsidies they supported and the things they planned to do about it. So far, this list is unimpressive.
G20 Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Phase Out: A review of current gaps and needed changes to achieve success
In its September 2009 Communiqué from Pittsburgh, the G20 nations (“Group of Twenty” nations that include the largest economies in the world) committed to “rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.”
Nuclear Socialism: Energy subsidies—of any kind—are bad business
Interesting article by Amory Lovins in The Weekly Standard examining the history and market-related problems associated with nuclear subsidies past and present. Lovins suggests that the structure of many of the proposed nuclear programs do a poor job aligning incentives and accountability for proper risk management and oversight, and create a significant risk of recreating conditions similar to those that led to the meltdown in mortgage markets two years ago. Lovins uses subsidy data from Earth Track, and suggests shifting from always adding new subsidies to various energy forms