Comments on: Net metering and feed-in tariffs http://polizeros.com/2008/06/28/net-metering-and-feed-in-tariffs/ Musings on politics: anti-war, global warming, peak oil and otherwise Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:52:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: DJ http://polizeros.com/2008/06/28/net-metering-and-feed-in-tariffs/#comment-153608 DJ Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:46:05 +0000 http://polizeros.com/?p=11936#comment-153608 MOST of our energy is subsidized in one way or another: oil gets tax breaks, ethanol gets direct payments, solar gives tax breaks to the end users. And even coal is subsidized by having the government pick up the tab for the environmental costs. Part of the reason we're in the mess we're in is that government has subsidized the wrong kinds of energy-- and the wrong kinds of transportation (e.g. trucking). But to stop the subsidies would send prices an unemployment skyward-- a political impossibility. MOST of our energy is subsidized in one way or another: oil gets tax breaks, ethanol gets direct payments, solar gives tax breaks to the end users. And even coal is subsidized by having the government pick up the tab for the environmental costs.

Part of the reason we’re in the mess we’re in is that government has subsidized the wrong kinds of energy– and the wrong kinds of transportation (e.g. trucking). But to stop the subsidies would send prices an unemployment skyward– a political impossibility.

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