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Archive for May 5, 2019
Fossil Fuel Subsidies
May 5th
Dirty Energy Dominance: Dependent on Denial
How the U.S. fossil fuel industry depends on subsidies and climate denial.
Oil Change International (OCI)
http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/10/OCI_US-Fossil-Fuel-Subs-2015-16_Final_Oct2017.pdf
“Policies, rules, and provisions in the tax code that continue to support fossil fuel production undermine efforts to transition to a clean energy economy, and rob the public purse of the resources needed to do so. Removing these highly inefficient subsidies – which waste billions of dollars propping up an industry incompatible with safe climate limits – should be the first priority of fiscally responsible climate, energy, and tax reform policies.”
“The United States federal and state governments gave away $20.5 billion a year on average in 2015 and 2016 in production subsidies to the oil, gas, and coal industries, including $14.7 billion in federal subsidies and $5.8 billion through state-level incentives. At the state level, this is likely a significantly conservative estimate, given limits to available data.”
Oil Spill Safety Rules
May 5th
ENVIRONMENT MAY 2, 2019
U.S. administration relaxes safety rules sparked by 2010 Gulf oil spill
“’The U.S. administration is putting industry cost savings ahead of safety just weeks after the anniversary of the worst oil spill in U.S. history,’” said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for ocean conservation group, Oceana.
‘We should be implementing new safety reforms, not rolling back the too-few safety measures currently in place.’
The BP Macondo well blowout and fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers and cost billions of dollars for Gulf Coast restoration.
The Obama administration had created a task force to examine the causes of the accident, and those findings were key in the formulation of the Obama-era rules.
Democratic Senator Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee, said the new rule flouted the findings of that task force.”