Posted on 08/18/2011 5:08:55 AM PDT by markomalley
While President Barack Obama wants to end subsidies that go to oil and natural gas companies, a new Department of Energy report shows that federal subsidies to clean energy are way up, with solar seeing a subsidy increase of 626 percent between FY 2007 and 2010 and wind getting a 946 percent increase.
In April 2011, Obama repeated his call to end subsidies to oil and gas companies and said that “instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, we should invest in tomorrow’s,” adding that “clean energy can lead to new jobs and new businesses,” and “[a]n investment in clean energy today is an investment in a better tomorrow.”
The report by the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), released in late July, shows that direct federal financial interventions and subsidies in FY 2010 to clean energy equaled $14.67 billion – up from $5.1 billion in FY 2007.
Direct federal subsidies to the solar industry rose from $179 million (in 2007) to $1.13 billion (in 2010). That represents an increase of 626 percent.
For the wind industry, it received $476 million in direct subsidies in 2007 and got $4.98 billion in 2010. That translates into an increase of 946 percent.
In the EIA report, it defines direct federal financial interventions and subsidies as “subsidies that are provided by the federal government, provide a financial benefit with an identifiable federal budget impact, and are specifically targeted at energy markets.”
These include direct cash outlays to producers and consumers; “tax expenditures that reduce the tax liability of firms or individuals who take specified actions that affect energy production”; research and development expenditures to increase or improve the “efficiency of various energy consumption, production, transformation, and end-use technologies”; loans and loan guarantees for certain energy technologies; and expenditures for electricity programs for consumers in certain geographic regions of the country.
Interesting that Tax deductions available to multiple industries are called subsidies when applied to oil and gas.
The subsidies are campaign fund laundering, no more no less.
Federal funds are being stolen before out eyes.
The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise
I’m calling the liar in chief a scam arteest.
There is nothing, and I mean nothing that should cause our government to spend our money on a known scam, other than an evil desire to gain power and control over a people and its wealth.
...and where one scam is lie a few more not quite as obvious.
The fast train to debtville is another waiting impatiently in the wings.
Note the quasi-deceptive arrangement of graphs -- wind and solar are 9% and 1% (respectively) of only 8% of the energy total. In other words, the two "green energy" sources getting these subsidies in toto generate much less than 1% of U.S. energy needs.
Bump.
I would like to see a comparison between the number of birds killed by oil spills in the last 20 years and the projected number of birds killed by windmills in the next 20 years.
of course.
and we are giving $360 mil to terrorists overseas
and we are providing healthcare and schooling free for
10 million illegal immigrants, many of whom are in jobs that our unemployed could fill.
and so on ad nauseum.
AND, most importantly, all of this is what nobama wants.
he wants this country on its knees.
bowing to muslims
To me the more relevant question is, “has it reduced the cost any?”
I checked out solar panels not too long ago and they were cost prohibitive. So far as I could figure, direct subsidies to consumers were extremely rare.
If it’s anything like college financial aid, they companies take the assistance and then charge the market rate anyway.
Wood 24%? How next century.
And that would be 24% of 8%, or about 2% of the total energy generated.
Gov’t Subsidized Solar Company Files Bankruptcy and Heads to China
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/state-subsidized-company-files-bankruptcy-and-heads-to-china/
This is pure welfare. Subsidies give a cost benefit return to society. Welfare is a pure giveaway.
I notice ethanol is not in the graph. Ethanol subsidies repay the Fed Treas on a 3-1 basis (Urbanchuk data), supply the equivilent of oil imported from Saudi’s, and drop the price of our gas by 90 cents a gallon.
.....hence a subsidy: both sides benefit greatly
Welfare.........not soo much....ie wind/ solar welfare.
Americas energy supplies run or monitored by democrats is like anything the democrats do... they Ruin it...
I’’m not talking some democrats but ALL democrats..
No political party has been so overrun by malefactors ever..
The democrat party is malicious.. completely...
Guess our Government Masters aren’t particularly interested in subsidizing for us any source of power that actually works.
Well, hey, just because Americans worked hard for the money, doesn’t mean our money-burning commissars can’t waste it just as quickly as it was earned by America’s workers - or more quickly, come to that.
Interesting that Greenies were all concerned about bird-killing and man-made objects such as high tension lines blighting the pristine countryside, but windmill farms stretching from Texas to North Dakota are okay.
Drill, Baby, Drill
Frack, Baby, Frack.
That is all we need to do.
let the market decide whether a product is good or bad!
If solar and wind require all these subsidies, they must not be very good. I do know, the price for solar panels
has gone up, over the years.
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