First, most obviously, the Fossil Fuel industry gets huge amounts of subsidies from the government in both tax breaks and actual tax dollars given to them. The gov’t of Kentucky just agreed to give $550 million to build a coal-to-liquids plant in Kentucky. That’s only around 7% of the actual cost of the plant. The FutureGen project in Matoon, Illinois was going to get 74% of it’s funding from the Department of Energy. When the DOE pulled out due to rising costs, the project collapsed because it’s not economically feasible with out that gov’t subsidy. The 2005 Energy Bill had $6 billion in subsidies to the Oil and Gas industry and $9 billion to the coal industry.

Last example, but there are many more, Marriott, the hotel chain, owns a number of “Synfuel” plants. In case you don’t remember what synfuel is, it was the attempt by the government to get coal-to-liquids going in the gas crisis of the 1970s. And no, you haven’t been filling your car with liquid coal, it was a corporate boondoggle. The definition of “Synfuel” was so broad that they simply spray diesel fuel on the coal, call it “synfuel” and get $150 million in tax breaks every year.

The State also gives subsidies to the industry in the form of externalities that the state picks up the tab on. Dr. Micheal Hendryx of WVU recently published an article in a peer reviewed journal that concluded the more coal that is mined in a community, the poorer the health of the community is. I live in West Virginia, the leading Appalachian coal producer, which has the 2nd lowest per capita income in the nation and the highest rate of disability. The state is picking up the tab on those health care costs created by the industry. The situation is the same in coal producing regions in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee.

In coal producing regions of West Virginia, the coal industry has held a tight grip on the economy and the politics. The monoeconomy the industry and bought off state and local governments have created caused West Virginia to have the 2nd lowest per capita income in the country. That means there are a lot of people on welfare, which the state is paying for. And before you stereotype us out here in Appalachia, it’s not usually by choice that folks get on welfare.

And it’s not just the government that’s paying for the fossil fuel industry, it’s also the people who pay. They pay with loss of their health. They pay with the loss of their homes and their history when the industry forces them out. They pay with loss of ground water. They pay with the loss of their community. And that coal-to-liquids plant in KY I mentioned earlier will be using 16.8 million gallons of water every single day. That water belongs to the people who will not be seeing profits from it.

And where do you think you get off saying why don’t we look for solutions? If we didn’t have to sit around refuting the nonsense that people like you put out there, maybe we could spend all our time working for those solutions. Check out http://www.coalriverwind.org for one such example.

The world is not a business. People like Mr. Pickens may think so, but people like Mr. Pickens also supported the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth (remember them, they lied) and are busy buying up as much of the Ogallala Aquifer as they can get their hands on to sell the water to cities in deserts (that’s actually what Pickens himself did). Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that he’s investing so much in wind energy and I have brought this up as an example in meetings with government agencies, but he’s in it for nothing but the money. He made his money in the Fossil Fuels and as far as I know hasn’t divested from them.

This chart is fantastic and if anything, it does not list enough of the negative impacts of the coal industry.

And Finally, George Bush just approved $162 billion for a war in Iraq (the Democratic controlled congress passed it first). That’s quite a subsidy.

That is 100% not correct. Actually coal companies are taxed heavily and there are essentially zero subsidies offer to coal mining operations to date.

In actuality wind, solar and water is all subsidied through the world. Which I am not against.

How do I know,I have done my research. Secondly, a good way to figure it out is that private enterprises can only make money on subsidies in alternatives today. When it becomes affordable and economical then the private industry will be successful and it will really take off.

The world is a business. If you can’t pay your bills you can’t survive. I assume most of you live in a house, apt, or a shelter. To live there you have to pay your bills. Most either have some sort of job or collect welfare. Welfare is a subsidy – subsidizing the individuals that either can’t or choose not to work.

Same as the this. Please all I ask if you that you look in to reality. Close your eyes and think about how the world turns.

The indians bartered for food and to survive.
We work to generate currency to buy food and pay bills.
Companies need to generate cash to pay bills, grow and work.

People hindering this process accomplishes nothing. If you all banged your heads together and thought of a solution to the problem we would probably have more success versus you all sitting around cheering that another one of your cronies got arrested for causing people to not do their job……

Why not change the posts to – what can we do to help. How can we make things affordable.

Boone Pickens – the most successful energy man in the world is trying – why don’t you?

The good news is that renewables ARE affordable and are ready to roll out now. The only reason they’re not already powering our homes is that they don’t receive anywhere near the amount of government support as governments give to the fossil fuel industries. Here in Australia the government gives $28 to the fossil fuel industry for every $1 it gives to renewables. Level the playing field and watch renewables take off!

I give it a 10 for truth and clarity, no question.

I totally agree with you that we need to be working towards energy efficiency and alternatives, and I think you’d be pleased to know how many of the people who I know who read this blog are working on that. In fact, the whole point of the Campus Climate Challenge is to work for solutions and there are thousands of youth at hundreds of schools working day and night to build energy efficient buildings and promote clean energy. Hop onto http://www.aashe.org/resources/profiles/profiles.php and I think you’ll get pretty inspired.

I myself was sitting with the lights off with no A/c and no appliances but my fridge plugged in when I made that chart, and I am right now actually, The electric bill in my house, where 3 people live, is about $13 a month. So that should come as good news to anyone who was worrying about that.

I’m also really excited about the possibility of a windfarm http://www.coalriverwind.org that would provide cheap, clean energy and safe long term jobs to one of the poorest counties in the US that is also one of the highest coal producing counties, Raleigh County, WV. For me, my work for renewable energy goes hand in hand with my work against coal — the horrible impacts I see in my community from coal inspire me to live simply and work for clean energy. I have found that telling people the truth about dirty energy is a great way to inspire people to work for clean energy and energy efficiency.

So thanks for promoting energy efficiency and pointing out the class discrepancies — that’s right, poor people pay a higher proportion of their salary into skyrocketing prices of dirty energy, and they are the first to get poisoned when dirty energy like coal comes to their town.

I think though, that even if I was flying in my personal jet with the A/C in my mega-mansion set at 40 degrees with no one home and eating baby seal sushi when I wrote that blog, the facts about coal’s impacts on communities would still be true.

One activists hypocrisy doesn’t negate an entire industries abuse of a land and people. For more information on that, see http://www.ilovemountains.org