Eliminate all energy subsidies, including fossil fuels
May 20, 2017
Russell Harland argues in his letter May 9 that if solar and
wind power were competitive, they would not need subsidies. Yet between 1950 and
2010, the federal government provided $594 billion of subsidies for fossil fuels
compared with $74 billion for renewables according to a 2011 study commissioned
by the Nuclear Energy Institute.
In addition, Americans spend $120 billion per year on
health-care costs associated with burning fossil fuels, an indirect subsidy to
the fossil fuel industry. The National Academy of Sciences estimated this hidden
subsidy at 3.2 cents per kWh for coal in 2005. Other estimates are as much as
tenfold that cost. If fossil fuels are competitive, why do they need such
subsidies?
Mr. Harland has a valid point about subsidies,
though. Let’s stop all subsidies and price energy according to true costs,
including health care, by adding a fee for each ton of carbon produced. Rather
than subsidizing anything, return that fee to the American people and let us
spend it where we want. When people pay the true costs for their energy, without
subsidies, there is no question that renewables will win. And so will the
American people.
Tom Lambert, Yosemite National Park
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