Why Fossil Fuels Subsidies Seem Impossible to Kill

An oil field at Signal Hill near Long Beach, Calif., in 1927.Credit...Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo, via Alamy

I am gifting all this very good NYT piece by Lisa Friedman, meaning you get to read the entire piece on my subscription. She’s a reporter covering climate policy and politics.

This explains the fossil fuels incentives, their history and volume, and notes Presidents Obama and Biden’s efforts to reduce them.

My own take, as I have written before, is that Democratic Administrations cannot just eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. The price of energy would skyrocket- whether or not justifiable the industry giants would do it- and Dems would be blamed. They’d be voted out and the incentives would be reinstated, at likely even higher levels than before. Instead the Inflation Reduction Act largely leveled the playing field, launching vast incentives for renewable energy.

Now investment in renewable energy projects is skyrocketing. This will continue to grow, eclipsing fossil fuels. It is not fast enough. But it is in the right direction. It creates opportunities to do more.

Read, appreciate, understand. And please take action to reduce your own fossil fuel energy use.

www.nytimes.com/…