The Biggest Lie of All from the Climate Cabal of Corporatists, Guest Post by Robert Bradley, Jr. of Master Resource. THOMAS J SHEPSTONE
Traditional fuels (coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear received just 15 percent of all subsidies between FY 2016 and FY 2022, while renewables, conservation, and end use received a whopping 85 percent
The Biggest Lie of All from the Climate Cabal of Corporatists
JUN 26
Guest Post by Robert Bradley, Jr. of Master Resource.
A fallacious argument in the energy/climate debate is that wind and solar are cheaper than fossil fuels in electric generation. It must be wrong because government subsidies are front-and-center for on-grid dilute, intermittent energies. And it is wrong if the federal accounting is examined (below).
Actually, the relatively small subsidies for oil, natural gas, and coal turn negative, dramatically, when the Biden Administration anti-fossil-fuel agenda is added, 200 actions worth.
Mary Hutzler of IER (and former acting head of the DOE’s Energy Information Agency) prepared this analysis less than a year ago for the Institute for Energy Research. “Renewable Energy Still Dominates Energy Subsidies in FY 2022” deserves amplification in the buildup for Fiscal Year 2023’s update. Hutzler’s August 9, 2023 post follows.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, evaluated the amount of subsidies that the federal government provides energy producers for fiscal years 2016 through 2022, in its report Federal Financial Interventions and Subsidies in Energy, updating its previous subsidy reports.
Federal subsidies to support renewable energy formed nearly half of all federal energy-related support between fiscal years 2016 and 2022. Traditional fuels (coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear) received just 15 percent of all subsidies between FY 2016 and FY 2022, while renewables, conservation, and end use received a whopping 85 percent.
Renewable subsidies more than doubled between FY 2016 and FY 2022, increasing to $15.6 billion in fiscal year 2022 from $7.4 billion in fiscal year 2016 (both in 2022 dollars). Federal subsidies and incentives to support renewable energy in fiscal year 2022 were almost 5 times higher than those for fossil energy, which totaled $3.2 billion in subsidies.
The subsidies in EIA’s report do not include state and local subsidies, mandates or incentives that in many cases are quite substantial, especially for renewable energy sources. EIA also did not include the massive subsidies authorized in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) since it was passed in August 2022. Goldman Sachs has estimated the costs of that bill at $1.2 trillion.