Resource Library of Subsidy Documents

Not a document for the faint-of-heart, but one of the best resources for learning about the vast array of federal tax provisions that are now doling out more than a trillion dollars of special exemptions for various groups in the economy.  A good book to tuck under your arm when you head out to the…

Conspicuously absent from industry press releases and briefing memos touting nuclear power’s potential as a solution to global warming is any mention of the industry’s long and expensive history of taxpayer subsidies and excessive charges to utility ratepayers. These subsidies not only enabled the…

The Democratic Staff of the Committee on Natural Resources of the U.S. House of Representatives provides a review of recent oil industry profits and examines the tab for some of the more visible tax breaks to the oil and gas industry.  In addition to looking a gross industry profits, the report…

Discussion of fiscal regimes for oil extraction have traditionally focused on the total charges of all sorts levied on a project (the "total government take"), and whether their level and structure optimised oil production and public revenues.  Yet national, or global, policies to meet energy and…

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…

Keynote presentation at the OECD's expert workshop on estimating subsidies to fossil fuels, held in November 2010. 

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…

Earth Track presentation on fossil fuel subsidy reform at a joint meeting hosted by the Global Subsidies Initiative of the IISD and the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva in October 2010, titled Increasing the Momentum of Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Reform: Developments and Opportunities.  The…

By providing a longitudinal perspective on energy tax policy and expenditures, this report examines how current revenue losses resulting from energy tax provisions compare to historical losses and provides a foundation for understanding how current energy tax policy evolved.  Further, this report…

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.”

The G20 commitment was…

This joint report to the G20 Finance Ministers and Leaders was issued by the IEA, OPEC, OECD and World Bank in response to a request by G20 Leaders when they met in Pittsburgh in September 2009. At that time, leaders agreed to “rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel…

The ability to undertake any meaningful subsidy reforms, either nationally or multilaterally, is hampered by a basic lack of knowledge about the extent of support to the sector and where information on this support might be held. This multi-country research effort identifying and classifying…

DOE has taken steps to implement the Loan Guarantee Program (LGP) for applicants but has treated applicants inconsistently and lacks mechanisms to identify and address their concerns. Among other things, DOE increased the LGP’s staff, expedited procurement of external reviews, and developed…

This document is addressed primarily to those individuals who are interested in preparing estimates of subsidies to particular products or sectors—people who engage in what might be called “subsidy accounting.”  Unlike financial accounting for the business sector, or public-sector accounting for…

Adapted from the report's introduction:

The European Union (EU) recently admitted that agro-fuels might be as much as four times more damaging to the climate than conventional fuels due to their indirect impacts. Still, such indirect impacts are being ignored in EU policies. Promoting woody bio…

This study addresses a wide array of scientific, economic and technological issues related to the use of forest biomass for generating energy in Massachusetts. Appendix 1 of the report also contains and detailed and very useful summary of federal and  state- or regional-level subsidies to biomass…

Since its inception fifteen years ago, the Green Scissors Campaign has fought to make environmental and fiscal responsibility a priority in Washington. By eliminating subsidies and programs that both harm the environment and waste taxpayer dollars, the federal government can protect our natural…

The federal government supports the use of biofuels—transportation fuel produced usually from renewable plant matter, such as corn—in the pursuit of national energy, environmental, and agricultural policy goals. Tax credits encourage the production and sale of biofuels in the United States…

The two largest offshore drilling companies in the world, Transocation and Noble Corporation, are in reality headquartered in the Houston area but moved their legal domiciles first to the Cayman Islands and then to Switzerland to avoid U.S. tax. Calculations shown below indicate that those…

Use of biofuels does not reduce emissions from energy combustion but may offset emissions by increasing plant growth or by reducing plant residue or other non-energy emissions. To do so, biofuel production must generate and use ‘additional carbon’, which means carbon that plants would not otherwise…