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Robert Weissman is the president of Public Citizen. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Why in the world should the public provide giant subsidies to the giant corporations that are rushing us to climate catastrophe?
Showered with tens of millions of dollars in oil and gas campaign contributions, President-elect Donald Trump is poised to pay back the favor likely thousands of times over — at public expense.
Trump and his pro-fossil fuel corporate cronies seem ready to put their collective thumb on the scale for Big Oil, bolstering their already robust subsidies — billions of dollars that perpetuate a system of environmental degradation and economic injustice.
Trump’s Cabinet picks appear fully committed to Big Oil giveaways. Trump’s pick for energy secretary, Chris Wright, is a climate change-denying oil executive who once said, “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either.”
Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick for the Interior Department, which leases onshore land and offshore water for oil and gas production, is a close ally of oil billionaire Harold Hamm, whose family leases 200 acres of Burgum’s land in North Dakota for oil drilling. Burgum has spent years promoting a “carbon capture” scheme allowing his state’s fossil fuel industry to keep drilling.
Each year, taxpayers hand over $17 billion to fossil fuel companies. These subsidies take many forms, from tax breaks for drilling operations to federal support for export infrastructure. Far from promoting energy security or affordability, these giveaways incentivize oil and gas companies to prioritize exports to overseas markets, including China, over domestic needs.
That’s a bad strategy for consumers and businesses.
And Big Oil isn’t satisfied. Oil and gas corporations hope to extract even more tax subsidies in the coming tax fight in Congress.
During Trump’s first term in office, he aggressively rolled back environmental and energy regulations, repealing or weakening more than 100 environmental rules, including the Clean Power Plan, which aimed to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, and loosened restrictions on methane emissions from oil and gas operations, undermining the market for renewables.
The Biden administration has worked hard to undo the damage by promoting lower-cost renewable energy. Now, those achievements are at risk.
Far from promoting energy security or affordability, fossil fuel giveaways incentivize oil and gas companies to prioritize overseas markets over domestic needs. As a result, American families face higher energy bills, with natural gas prices rising 52 percent between 2016 and 2023, while fossil fuel executives rake in record profits.
The environmental cost is equally staggering. Subsidizing fossil fuels accelerates global warming and undermines our ability to meet climate goals. Increased drilling and exports mean more pipelines, more methane leaks, and more emissions — locking in decades of climate harm at a time when the world cannot afford further delay in transitioning to clean energy.
Taxpayers are subsidizing fossil fuels at a moment when the cheapest forms of energy are renewable. The cost of solar energy systems has plummeted by 88 percent between 2010 and 2021, making solar one of the most affordable energy sources in almost every geographic market in the United States. In the same period, onshore wind energy costs dropped by 68 percent.
The choice is clear: We can continue subsidizing a system that enriches fossil fuel companies at the expense of the planet and the public, or we can invest in a clean energy future that benefits everyone.
Policymakers need to redirect our taxpayer money to accelerate the deployment of renewables, invest in energy storage and grid modernization, and support workers and communities transitioning away from fossil fuels.
For the sake of our economy, our environment, and future generations, it’s time to leave fossil fuel subsidies in the past.