From an article in the Washington Post comes word of the huge subsidies the world continues to give to fossil fuels, while Alt-energy, not so much.
The report does note, however, that governments around the world are still subsidizing dirty fossil energy much more than they're subsidizing renewables. As of 2013, reports IEA, world fossil fuel subsidies totaled $550 billion, four times the amount devoted to clean energy.
But even without the earth moving subsidies of the fossil fuel industry, Alternative energy is growing rapidly. But to overcome the subsidy advantage that the fossil fuel industry has had for decades, much more needs to be done for Alt-E.
We have some 1000 gigatonnes of carbon left to emit to the atmosphere before locking in a dangerous amount of warming above 2 degrees, and on the current course we'll use it all up by 2040, says the IEA. In order to stop that, we'll need four times the current investment in renewable energy -- an increase up to $ 1.5 trillion annually around the world.
The oil industry alone gets
enormous subsidies thanks to the Grand Oligarch Party, and our bluedog Democrats.
One of the reasons I bring this up today, is because of the interview Bill Maher did with Rand Paul last night. Bill Maher hinted that he might be able to support Rand Paul, and I suspect many young people could easily get just as fooled as Maher may have been last night.
One of Bill Maher's hot topics of concern is the issue of Global Warming. Of course Mr. Maher asked Rand Paul about it. Paul twisted and turned and weaved and dodged and talked about "market solutions" and especially getting rid of the subsidies.
Now when a Libertarian in the Republican party talks about getting rid of energy subsidies, it's code for, we're going to gut subsidies for solar/wind, and find a token fossil fuel subsidy the industry doesn't need, and get rid it to show how fair we are.
The fossil fuel industry has had decades of subsidies to build their infrastructure and industry, while Alt-E is just getting started. And we won't even begin to talk about the public lands used by the fossil fuel industry and the free ticket to dump their garbage into our air.
So a warning to all the people who are jumping up and down because Rand Paul has got the pot issue right, you better take a real hard look at all the absolutely nutty and devastating stands this crazy is trying to hide from you. You may just find that the smoke you smell in a couple of years, isn't from the joint you just lit up that you think came from Rand Paul, but might actually be from the wildfire out your front door thanks the Rand Paul super drought from his dog eat dog nutty Libertarian policies.