Earth Track Blog

Two important publications on fossil fuel subsidies were released last week, though covering quite different aspects of the problem. The first, by Oil Change International in Washington, DC, updated information on US subsidies to fossil fuels to 2013. Their work captures the subsidy escalation that...

The first work I did on environmentally-harmful subsidies was in 1988, and wasn't actually on energy subsidies -- at least not at first. It was an examination of federal government subsidies to primary materials, and whether these subsidies undermined the marketability of secondary materials. Scrap...

1) Toronto Hydro looks to implement power subsidies on steroids to large consumers. Trying to cut down power bills? Use less energy has long been the solution. But if Toronto Hydro gets its way, every customer would pay a flat rate for as much power as they could consume. Small power consumers would...

With no plan for a long-term nuclear waste repository in process, the nuclear and utility industries argued that continued collection of the nuclear waste fund fee was unwarranted. Litigation against the US Department of Energy was led by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners...

Hidden amongst a great (and very funny) review of the battle over net neutrality, comedian John Oliver pretty much nails the first rule of subsidies -- or more precisely, the first rule of getting and keeping large subsidies: "If you want to do something evil, put it inside of something boring."...

Travis Hoium has an interesting summary of the future of solar leases over at The Motley Fool investment site. Hoium sees an evolution from leases to loans as the costs of PV installations become more predictable and affordable. New solar loans will be structured to capture more of the tax benefits...

One of the challenges (albeit a fun one) of any "top ten" list is trying to distill the most important items down from a much bigger list of contenders. It's not just the fiscal cost that matters. The degree of environmental damage, the dumping of risks onto taxpayers rather than investors, or the...

For more than half a century, hydrocarbon deposits have enriched many middle-eastern countries beyond measure. But geology didn't favor all spots equally, and Israel pretty much came up dry. The closest they came to oil gushers was the dark mud of the Dead Sea. So development shifted elsewhere: to...

Ahh, how the petty world of politics doth make fools of us all. It is not enough that Elon Musk is trying to start a new car company in a market segment ruled by massive multinationals. He is ratcheting up the risk level by taking on a great deal of technology risk as well. And in the process, he is...

In one of their recent blog posts, the Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS) called attention to the apparently amazing efficiency of Chinese new build nuclear reactors. Two new units are being built at a stated cost of roughly $2.5 billion each, significantly less expensive than what it would...

Colorado's govenor John Hickenloper has estimated that annual sales and excise taxes on the state's legal marijuana market will bring in as much as $134 million in tax and fee revenue next year. The figure is well above projections, and the Governor and many others in the state are happy...

Homeowners are lucky if they get a 60 day rate lock on their mortgage application. Nuclear reactor developers seem to have no such problem: agreements for multi-billion dollar subsidized loans to build two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia have been repeatedly extended for four years...

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is embarking on a major work program to identify and assess fossil fuel subsidies throughout Latin America and the Carribean. I had the privilege of presenting a number of ideas on how to leverage their effort during an expert meeting on the topic a few...

In December, the Senate Finance Committee released a plan (links below table), spearheaded by Senator Max Baucus, that aims to simplify tax breaks to energy. There are some interesting elements to their approach. For example, they attempt to combine many tax breaks specifying a single energy...

The Joint Committee on Taxation of the US Congress has gradually posted many of its publications going back as early as 1926. Special tax rules for natural resources were a focus of JCT's attention even in its earliest days. By the mid-1920s, standard cost depletion had already been jettisoned for...

Government mortgage insurers Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) have been in the news quite a bit lately. Last week it was the most recent multi-billion dollar payment to the US Treasury; today it is reports that Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund has just purchased...

Bjorn Lomborg ran an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago in which he concluded the real problem with energy markets is that there are too many subsidies to green energy. Lomborg argues that people who complain about subsidies to fossil fuels are in part misguided by the considerable...

More evidence that nuclear power isn't competitive in the marketplace is coming out of the just-announced deal for Britain's first new nuclear reactors since 1995 -- to be developed at Hinkley Point C, Somerset. The deal also provides a fairly striking example of just how badly government officials...

Some interesting research coming out of MIT and UCAL Davis challenges claims by the biofuels industry that Renewable Fuel purchase mandates have resulted in enormous savings to fuel consumers. Claimed savings have been massive, indeed. Last month, energy economist Phil Verlager published an analysis...

1) Biofuels: More problems with renewable fuel compliance credits. Remember back in July when it was discovered that investment banks were manipulating aluminum prices through an arcane and somewhat bizarre dance of trucks moving inventory to and fro among bank warehouses in Detroit? Well, they've...