Leaked: Obama will ask G-20 to end fossil fuel subsidy hypocrisy

[kpete]

Source: Daily Kos

Leaked: Obama will ask G-20 to end fossil fuel subsidy hypocrisy
by RLMiller
Fri Sep 18, 2009 at 06:52:10 PM PDT

On Tuesday, September 22, President Obama will give a high profile speech to the United Nations in an effort to jump-start Copenhagen negotiations before the G-20 meetings September 24-25. According to a leaked White House letter (pdf), part of his agenda will include an audacious statement:


***** Eliminating fossil fuel and electricity subsidies would help energy markets work better and improve our energy security. It also is a logical step in combating global climate change, as it would encourage energy conservation, and facilitate new technologies.
http://priceofoil.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/froman...


He will ask the G-20 countries, including our own, to end the hypocritical practice of billions of dollars of subsidies to dirty, carbon-emitting fuels while preaching to developing countries about their carbon emissions. If you thought the health insurers hated Obama, it ain't nothing compared to the reaction by Exxon Mobil and pals!

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/18/783752/-Lea...

[babylonsister]

1. Darn the bad luck. The trifecta. Healthcare, education, energy.

I wish our President luck.

[Thrill]

2. Wait until the EFCA fights start too

[robinlynne]

3. YES!

[Autumn]

4. Wow guess who is going to be pissed

off. Good job.

[graywarrior]

5. I pray for his safety, I really really do.

He is pissing off a lot of powerful people.

[Stumbler]

17. I couldn't agree more

I applaud his effort, if/when he actually makes this potential statement, but I think you're right. Let's hope the screening process for his presidential security is better than it is for our armed forces.

[jhain]

6. The man moves FAST!

I love it.
8 years of reverse time travel to make up for!

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

7. Didn't cash4clunkers

use up the monies for alternative energy infrastructure?

No Wind Turbines or Solar Panel Farms now...

[aquart]

8. Secret Service better be on their toes.

Because Big Oil is not known for humanitarian impulses or forgive and forget.

OTOH, I'm pleased to see this effort. May it be a sincere one.

[wroberts189]

9. Best President Ever. nt

[SpartanDem]

10. This should go over well in Congress

[amandabeech]

11. I think that it would go over better if the unemployment number wasn't over 9%.

I think that Obama would also have a much easier time with health care reform under good economic conditions.

IMHO, Carville was right: "It's the economy stupid."

It was then and it is now.

[DallasNE]

12. Chuck Grassley Ain't Going To Like This

And the ethanol industry is powerful. Without the subsidy ethanol will wither away. That will free up a lot of acres to grow food and that should stop the rapid increases in food prices, putting money in the pockets of average Americans.

[rasputin1952]

22. For the record, the ethanol subsidy goes to blenders, not to producers...

at this point, nary a dime goes to the ETOH industry, it goes to those who add ETOH to gasoline, in essence, it goes to oil company subsidiaries. One of the plays was to move this subsidy to producers, (an excellent plan IMO), as far as I know, that has not happened yet.

As for subsidies in general, for those who claim "government i the problem", if subsidies were removed from the matrix, everything would be unaffordable, since just about everything is subsidized by the government in some fashion. Energy prices would skyrocket, food prices would make starvation a real possibility on a scale not known in decades, industries would shut down w/in a week and unemployment would hit 75% almost immediately. Health-care would collapse almost immediately, regardless of how good one's insurance is.

Fact of the matter is, if this were truly an "open" capitalist society, w/o any government intervention, we would be in a state of chaos within a day or two. If we go down, the world goes down with us. We are dependant upon not only controlling measures the government puts in place, but also by the massive infusion of cash that the government puts into play in many ways. most of this money comes from taxation, so hose who want to drastically cut taxes, actually cut their own throats...however, since many of them never really took advantage of the educational system their forefathers paid for, (through taxation), they remain in a constant state of ignorance.

[starroute]

13. Actually the fight is already on

A significant number of the sponsors of the 9.12 rally have long records of being not only anti-government in general but also specifically anti-environmental regulation. For example, three out of the four members of something called NoClimateTax.com -- the Institute for Liberty, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the National Taxpayers Union -- were rally sponsors.

Add in the fourth member -- Americans for Prosperity -- along with Frontiers of Freedom, another anti-environmental group which has ties to the Institute for Liberty, and you get a pretty good idea of where much of the organized opposition to climate change legislation is going to be coming from.

[tocqueville]

14. who is subsidizing oil and electricity ? isn't it a US-(Russian-Chinese) problem ?

in Europe, one of the biggest users in the world, gasoline is taxed to 80%, industrial gaz follows the oil price, car diesel somewhat less.
The only area where taxes could be increased is on crude industrial fuels and coal, but they are only responsible for 8 % of the total emissions.
60% of the emissions is due to USE through unnefficient appliances.

What are subsidies on electricity ? It can only be related to thermal powered plants (included above).

Approximately 80% of total GHG emissions (4 192 Mt in 2005) in the EU‐15 are due to the
supply and use of energy (including fuel consumption from transport). CO2 emissions from
public electricity and heat production represent a quarter of all EU‐15 GHG emissions, while
CO2 emissions from road transportation represent a fifth of all EU‐15 GHG emissions.
• Agriculture is the main CH4 and N2O emitter and accounts for 9% of total GHG emissions.
• The share of transport in total GHG emissions has been increasing since 1990.
• Between 1990 and 2005, the GHG emissions that increased most in absolute value were CO2
emissions from road transportation, CO2 emissions from electricity and heat production and
HFCs emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.
• Between 1990 and 2005, the GHG emissions that decreased most in absolute value were CH4
emissions from land filling, CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in manufacturing industries
and construction and CO2 emissions from the manufacture of solid fuels (e.g. charcoal).

the solution is in SAVING energy in Europe (houses appliances, isolation)
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2007_5...

SAVING is not sexy

[Ghost Dog]

20. As regards US subsidies, Bloomberg says:

U.S. Fossil-Fuel Subsidies Twice That of Renewables (Update2)

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Fossil fuels including oil, natural gas and coal received more than twice the level of subsidies that renewable energy sources got from the U.S. government in fiscal 2002 through 2008, the Environmental Law Institute said.

Government spending and tax breaks amounted to $72.5 billion for fossil fuels and $29 billion for renewable energy, according to a report by the institute today.

...

The largest of the subsidies for fossil fuels in the report was a tax credit oil and natural gas companies can claim for paying royalties to other governments. The institute’s report finds that credit totaled $15.3 billion over the time period.

‘Tax Breaks’

“The major route for providing subsidies is tax incentives, tax breaks,” Pendergrass said at a briefing today in Washington.

Also included in calculation of subsidies are the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve -- an emergency oil stockpile -- and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps some consumers pay for heating and cooling costs.

Including such programs as subsidies is “ludicrous,” Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement.

“This study is an irresponsible rendition based on a contorted recycling of government data that should never be used to craft national policy -- especially a tax increase on the oil and natural gas industry that would raise energy costs and kill jobs,” Gerard said.

About half of the government’s subsidies for renewable energy go to corn-based ethanol, according to the study. The largest of the renewable subsidies was for blending ethanol with gasoline, a credit that the institute calculated at $11.6 billion during the seven years.

/... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a2y...

[rasputin1952]

23. The ETOH subsidy goes to blenders...

which are an element of the oil industry. Some can be considered to go under subsidies for corn producers when they receive stipends for fallow fields and other aspects that farmers get, but nary a dime goes to ETOH production. it i a fallacy to say that ETOH production sites get cash on the barrelhead. I interned at a facility here in NE, I know that higher corn prices had a serious impact all the way around, but the farmers received their usual Ag cash from the gov't even when making a pretty good profit from their crop. The ETOH industry receives tax breaks for building/expanding facilities, but does not receive any direct influx of subsidy cash.

The blenders were offered subsidy $ to use ethanol as opposed to other additives under aspects of the Clean Air Act. Blenders are a part of the oil industry, and receive cash for simply adding 10% ETOH to gasoline...in essence, it is a give-away to big oil, not ETOH.

[excess_3]

27. Obama loans 2 billion to Brazil, for offshore oil drilling

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin .snip...........

http://osmoothie.com/2009/08/19/obama-financing-offshor...

[joshcryer]

15. How the heck is Obama going to close oil tax loopholes?

O_o

[Frank Booth]

16. Well, I still think health insurers like Obama, but if true,

this is great.

[earcandle]

18. It is just fucking common sense. You have to be brave these days to act with common sense?

[laconicsax]

19. Great! Is he still pushing 'clean' coal?

As of June, $1 billion was headed for 'clean' coal R&D. (link)

[excess_3]

21. subsidized cars are OK ...

bailouts for GM and Chrysler.
cash for clunkers, is OK
but electricity for everyone is bad..
.....................
umm, sure

[pipoman]

24. Glad to see so many in this thread are doing so well that they are

cheering higher gas and electricity prices. I can't take much more increase in either, myself...

[NickB79]

25. Some of us are young enough that we'll be alive when the worst of Global Warming hits

Like this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Which, btw, is one of the same factors now thought responsible for the Permian mass extinction, in which 90 PERCENT of all life on the planet DIED.

People need to grasp the seriousness of the situation we are looking at with regard to global warming. If things like a runaway methane hydrate release occur, that is a civilization-destroyer right there.

[Zorra]

26. Oh, boy. Obama is going to anger the owners of our country. They'll retaliate

by screwing us all into submission. They totally trashed President Carter when he fought them.

How can we defeat them? Extreme regulation? Nationalization?

[Nikki Stone1]

28. There go our gas and electric bills. The consumer WILL pay for this.

Not Obama's fault. Just the evil greedy corporations.

[Deja Q]

29. The consumer shouldn't have to.

If there were no crises, one would be invented just for the excuse of passing on costs to us.