Free market types love to argue that competitive markets reward the ambitious and self-reliant while punishing the lazy and incompetent all without the dead hand of government helping them out.
On energy policy, they like to argue that renewable energy is just too expensive and we should stick to fossil fuels, despite the threat of global warming.
Of course, it’s all baloney. Via Grist’s David Roberts, a study by the Environmental Law Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars asserts that fossil fuels received $79 billion in federal subsidies, while renewable fuels received $29 billion. And among the renewables, over half the subsidies went to corn ethanol, which is essentially a subsidy for big agribusiness that makes extensive use of fossil fuels.
Recently, Obama told the United Nations that fossil fuel subsidies had to end.
But he is up against a powerful lobby with a very entrenched interest in fossil fuels supported by taxpayers.
