Government for the rich, by the rich, over the People’s backs.
What lies behind this trans-Atlantic policy paralysis? I’m increasingly convinced that it’s a response to interest-group pressure. Consciously or not, policy makers are catering almost exclusively to the interests of rentiers — those who derive lots of income from assets, who lent large sums of money in the past, often unwisely, but are now being protected from loss at everyone else’s expense.
A 1998 study by Greenpeace entitled “Fueling Global Warming: Federal Tax Subsidies to Oil in the U.S.” found that there were between $5 billion and $35 billion in annual subsidies to oil companies in the U.S. depending on how one makes the calculation and hence whether or not one includes such things as U.S. grants to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and other less visible oil-related subsidies.
Big Oil does NOT get $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies. It gets BILLIONS MORE!.
Climate change is expected to alter the global industry in fruits and nuts dramatically as tree crops such as pistachios and cherries struggle in the rising temperatures, researchers said.
If you want to transform the economy, you have to cut Wall Street down to its proper size. One way to do that is to tax the short-term speculative activities that dominate and distort financial markets.
via Cut Wall Street Down to Size With a Financial Speculation Tax | The Nation.
Brought to you by America the Exceptional:
This makes us different than, say, Japan and Germany when it comes to nuclear power. Scarred by fallout, the former has canceled plans to build 14 new nuclear plants and has radically altered its energy agenda, now moving to pursue solar rather than atomic energy. Likewise, according to the Associated Press, the latter reacted to Japan’s plight by “vot[ing] in favor of a ban on nuclear power from 2022 onward.”
By contrast, in the days after the Fukushima disaster, the Obama administration not only reaffirmed its commitment to expanding nuclear power, but, according to ProPublica, also continued the policy of “routinely waiving fire rule violations at nearly half the nation’s 104 commercial reactors, even though fire presents one of the chief hazards at nuclear plants.”
via America’s increasingly oblivious energy policy – Environment – Salon.com.
US solar power will compete on price with conventional generation within three years without subsidy thanks to plummeting costs, industry leaders say.
In a breakthrough for renewable generation that will lessen the dependence on fossil fuels, the cost of solar power in California is near that of gas-fired plants at times of peak demand.
via FT.com / Energy – US solar power nears competing on price.
Why am I not surprised? The way the military makes a public estimate about the costs of the latest corporate welfare project is to take the private estimate and divide by ten. And the private estimate is always too low.
US military operations in Libya are on course to cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the Pentagon estimated, according to figures obtained by the Financial Times.
Robert Gates, the outgoing secretary of defence, said last month that the Pentagon expected to spend “somewhere in the ball park of $750m” in the 2011 fiscal year as part of efforts to protect the Libyan people.
But according to a Pentagon memo which includes a detailed update on the progress and pace of operations, by mid-May US operations in Libya had cost $664m, a figure confirmed by the Department of Defence.
via FT.com / Middle East & North Africa – Pentagon sees Libya military costs soar.
All 54 of Japan’s nuclear reactors may be shut by next April, adding more than $30 billion a year to the country’s energy costs, if communities object to plant operating plans due to safety concerns, trade ministry officials said on Wednesday.
Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo, concern among local authorities has kept nuclear generators from restarting at least four reactors that had been expected to come online after routine maintenance and inspection.
via Japan may have no nuclear reactors running by next April | Reuters.
ThinkProgress, using data on various social spending projects from the National Priorities Project — which does these calculations for the cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars — has estimated ten other possible policies we could’ve paid for at the same $2.5 trillion price of the Bush tax cuts.
It’s a sobering 10-item list, e.g.
– Provide 31.5 Million Head Start Slots For Children Every Year For Ten Years
– Provide VA Care For 30.7 Million Military Veterans Every Year For Ten Years
via The $2.5 Trillion Tragedy: What America Has Given Up For 10 Years Of Bush Tax Cuts | Common Dreams.
Truth and Traditions 