Media Won’t Report That Renewable Energy Subsidies Dwarf Fossil Fuel Subsidies

On April 11, The New York Times ran an article titled, “Why Are Taxpayers Propping Up the Fossil Fuel Industry?” in which the author claims, “Around the world, taxpayers are helping to support fossil fuels through subsidies when their money could be funding green energy transitions instead.”

This article should have been printed 10 days earlier, on April 1, under the heading: “April Fool’s Joke!”

In reality, taxpayers are not propping up the fossil fuel industry, however, they are propping up the renewable energy industry.

According to the World Economic Forum, “Government spending on clean energy has risen by more than $500 billion since March 2022…This brings the total amount allocated to clean energy since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic to more than $1.2 trillion.”

In the United States, under the Biden administration, green energy subsidies have increased substantially as well.

For example, thanks to Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. government will spend more than $400 billion on renewable energy subsidies over the next decade. This includes a $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of an electric vehicle (EV) and a $14,000 tax rebate for the purchase of “heat pumps and other energy efficient home appliances.”

Biden also packed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law with more than $100 billion in green energy subsidies, which includes $7.5 billion towards EV charging stations and $5 billion for electric school buses.

According to Biden, “This moment demands urgent investments the American people want and our nation needs – investments that will bolster America’s competitiveness, resilience, and economy all while creating good-paying jobs, saving people money, and building an equitable clean energy economy of the future.”

Make no mistake, renewable energy subsidies are not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the United States has been “investing” in renewable energy technology since 1979, when it began offering tax credits for wind and solar power.

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated more than $87 billion in green energy subsidies. At the time, Al Gore praised the law, claiming it would create, “critical investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy and a unified national smart grid. By accelerating America’s shift to a clean energy economy, this bill lays the foundation for a true recovery and is an important first step in dramatically reducing our carbon emissions.”

Fourteen years after the fact, we now know that Gore (as per usual) wildly overstated these claims. We also know that many of these subsidies, such as the $570 million guaranteed loan the government gave to Solyndra, turned out to be a total waste of taxpayer money.

Yet, despite the hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds that have flowed to green energy projects over the past few decades, the industry still represents only a fraction of total power generation in the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “In 2021, renewable energy sources accounted for about 12.4% of total U.S. primary energy consumption.”

Since 2010, according to EIA data, subsidies for renewable energy have dwarfed subsidies for fossil fuels.

Per the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), “since the mid-2000s, new legislation has expanded the scope of federal energy policy, and the share of total financial support provided through energy-related tax incentives that goes toward the production of fossil fuels has decreased.”

How much has this decreased? The CBO notes, “Roughly three-fourths of the projected cost of tax preferences for energy in 2016 was for renewable energy and energy efficiency. An estimated $10.9 billion, or 59 percent of the energy-related tax preferences, was directed toward renewable energy; $2.7 billion, or 15 percent, went to energy efficiency or electricity transmission. Fossil fuels accounted for most of the remaining cost of energy-related tax preferences—an estimated $4.6 billion, or 25 percent.”

Keep in mind, that was all the way back in 2016, well before the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law added $500 billion more to the left’s renewable energy slush fund.

And, that was five years before President Biden signed an executive order that “directs federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.”

Clearly, a trend is occurring in which the U.S. government, and governments around the globe, are picking energy winners and losers.

However, unlike the Times article would have you believe, these governments are not pouring billions into “propping up” fossil fuel companies. Instead, they are villainizing fossil fuels as they stubbornly continue to throw good money after bad.