House Bill H.R. 3574, otherwise known as the End Polluter Welfare Act of 2013, was introduced to the congressional committee on Nov. 21, 2013. Although the bill has about a 2 percent chance of getting passed the committee, the intentions of the legislation are an indescribable part of a sensible energy policy in the United States.
In light of the $17 trillion national debt in the U.S., the notion that we should continue to subsidize an industry that has annual profits on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars and harms the environment in the process is absurd.
Conservatives often argue that the welfare state in this country is out of hand, and that the money the government takes from hardworking Americans is unrightfully given to those who choose not to work and earn an honest living.
This, they say, penalizes those who work hard and facilitate economic development and rewards those who contribute nothing to society. However, a look at the numbers concerning the welfare state in the country illustrates a strikingly different picture.
According to the CATO Institute, a right-leaning think tank, the U.S. spent about $93 billion, or 5 percent of the national budget, on corporate welfare in 2006. That same year the government spent about $59 billion on social welfare programs.
This means that each year, the government spends about 50 percent more on corporate subsidies than it does on traditional welfare programs. In light of these facts, it appears that the real moochers of government funds are wealthy, multinational corporations such as Exxon Mobil and Shell, rather than poor, impoverished citizens who refuse to get a job.
Moreover, the popular argument that the market is being tampered with when green energy firms are given an unfair advantage due to government subsidies is also drastically different from reality.
According to the Energy Information Agency, fossil fuels have received 75 times the amount of government subsidies that renewable energy sources have. This information came as a shock to me, to say the least.
To be exact, the oil-and-gas industry has received $446.96 billion in subsidies from 1994 – 2009, whereas renewable energy companies have received $5.93 billion, when adjusted for inflation.
This is why, although only popular among Democrats, the End Polluter Welfare Act of 2013 is such an important piece of legislation to be considered. This trend is antithetical to that of those in progressive countries such as the Netherlands or France where gasoline is taxed at remarkably high rates. The tax on gasoline in the Netherlands accounts for about 57 percent of the total cost of gas.
Given that the state of the climate is only going to get worse if we continue to consume fossil fuels as our primary energy source, if there is any way that the market should be influenced to give an advantage to a certain energy industry, green energy should receive the larger portion of the funds.
The Obama Administration has undertaken decisive actions to help mitigate this trend, but needless to say, these attempts have not sufficed. Until the green energy industry is at least on a level playing field with the oil-and-gas industry, it will remain impossible for the U.S. to meet its energy demand in an environmentally sensible manner.