This Review provides the most detailed look to date at gaps in federal tracking of energy subsidies. In addition to evaluating the research approach used by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Review assesses how key assumptions and omissions in EIA's work resulted in a substantial…
Table comparing EIA energy subsidy estimates to a variety of other assessments conducted over the past 30 years in the United States.
Table extracted from Doug Koplow, EIA Energy Subsidy Estimates: A Review of Assumptions and Omissions, Earth Track, Inc., March 2010. Access full report. Access ex…
David Coady, Robert Gillingham, Rolando Ossowski, John Piotrowski, Shamsuddin Tareq, and Justin Tyson
Posted on:
2/26/2010
Petroleum product subsidies have again started to rise with the rebound in international prices. This note reviews recent developments in subsidy levels and argues that it is necessary to reform the policy framework for setting petroleum product prices in order to reduce the fiscal burden of these…
Review of key federal policy trends in the energy sector, identifying the unprecendented scale of interventions, and the inadequate attention being paid to incentive alignment and assessment of leverage points.
Beginning on slide 6, the presentation provides a specific review of how the government's…
Despite industry advertising to the contrary, an analysis by the Center of American Progress determined that ACCCEs companies spend relatively few dollars conducting research on carbon capture and storage, among the most promising clean coal technology to reduce global warming pollution from coal…
Critical review of wind energy in Denmark arguing that the resource is less reliable than claimed, and that a sizeable portion of the subsidy to wind energy is lost through power exports to surrounding countries. The analysis also quantifies the magnitude of wind subsidies within the country.
Mycle Schneider, Steve Thomas, Antony Frogatt, Doug Koplow
Posted on:
1/13/2010
This Bulletin article is an extract from the longer and more detailed analysis prepared for the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety. The extract focuses primarily on the industry trends and does not address the subsidy components of the original report. …
Short documentary providing useful background on global fishery subsidies and efforts at reform. It looks at the problem of over-fishing and approaches to making fisheries more sustainable, in particular through the reform of fishery subsidies. In this regard, the ongoing WTO negotiations aimed at…
The general message is clear: in France nuclear power works, in 2007 providing 77% of the electricity in the country and 47% of all nuclear electricity in the EU. “The requests by countries that wish to profit from that clean and cheap source of energy are legitimate”, claims French Foreign Minister…
The paper reviews the history and the economics of the French PWR program, which is arguably the most successful nuclear-scale up experience in an industrialized country. Key to this success was a unique institutional framework that allowed for centralized decision making, a high degree of…
As the projected costs of nuclear reactor construction have escalated, demand forelectricity has declined as result of the recession, and the cost of alternatives has plummeted, the nuclear industry has recognized that new nuclear reactors are simply uneconomic and impossible to fund in the capital…
Of note: analysis contains a detailed summary of credit downgrades associated with the last waves of nuclear reactor construction.
While nuclear power remains a thorny political and policy issue today, the concept of building new facilities has gradually reawakened in recent years, offering a buffer…
Subsidies to the fishing industry are common worldwide, and it is well accepted that these subsidies contribute to overcapacity in fishing fleets and overexploitation of fisheries resources. To date, however, most of the quantitative estimates of these subsidies reported in the literature have been…
Hundreds of government subsidies have fuelled the growth of ethanol and biodiesel in the USA, worth half or more their retail price. Cumulative costs under some mandate proposals exceed $1 trillion by 2030. Even using favourable assumptions, reduced greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels are far…
Maria del Carmen Vera-Diaz, John Reid, Britaldo Soares Filho, Robert Kaufmann and Leonardo Fleck
Posted on:
11/10/2009
A number of energy and transportation projects have been proposed to promote the physical integration of Peru, Brazil and Bolivia's Amazon territories. The Madeira River Hydroelectric and Navigation Mega-project includes the construction of two hydroelectric power stations (HPS), Jirau and Santo…
Thomas Binet, Institute for European Environmental Policy
Posted on:
11/3/2009
All European countries provide fuel subsidies to their fisheries sector in one form or another. Those subsidies consist mostly of fuel tax exemptions, but there are also some other state aid and support schemes that play a role in reducing fuel costs for the fishing industry. This report analyses…
The Tasmanian forestry industries has received more than A$630 million in direct and indirect subsidies from 1997 to 2008. The study also found that despite the huge taxpayer funded subsides, which were intended to create jobs, that there have been steady job losses over the same period. The…
Policy brief reviewing proposed G-20 actions to phase out fossil fuel subsidies world wide. Brief discusses G-20 definition of subsidies, estimates of their global scale, and challenges ahead.
Consumer subsidies to oil consumption depress the visible price of fossil fuels to end users, and with it their incentive to substitute alternative fuels or conservation. Understanding which countries mute price adjustments in oil products, and to what degree, is important in mapping out the…