Fossil Fuels Subsidised By $10m a Minute, Says IMF

Fossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies of $5.3tn (£3.4tn) a year, equivalent to $10m a minute every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF calls the revelation “shocking” and says the figure is an “extremely robust” estimate of the true cost of fossil fuels. The $5.3tn subsidy estimated for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments.

The vast sum is largely due to polluters not paying the costs imposed on governments by the burning of coal, oil and gas. These include the harm caused to local populations by air pollution as well as to people across the globe affected by the floods, droughts and storms being driven by climate change.

The Guardian

Please tell us again how costly it will be to switch to renewables.

Yeah, If we would stop subsidizing these companies and really look at true cost....

I really hate big oil companies and our stupid governments that subsidize them and then ....the people that complain about the costs of renewables. It's not a level playing field.

a reply to: Kali74 I'm not shocked, lol. That is we don't switch to green energy faster. It's why it would cost me over 10k to put a couple solar panels on my roof...if I was even allowed by my municipality. I am supposed to be making rich people richer, apparently.

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: Kali74 I am supposed to be making rich people richer, apparently.

As long as you accept your fate, everything will be just fine.

a reply to: reldra

It's all that 7 billion people exist for... to make the rich, richer.

This is one reason why they have so much political pull and propaganda machines.

Why are we so dependent on foreign oil, Because they say so that's why!

Why do they have so much money to pay off political pundits and climate change science and politicians.

Green energy is the only way to unshackle us from those corporate overlords.

That would clear of of all the big oil, power overlords.

Then we'd only have to fight off our food overlords, military industrial complex overlords and banker overlords....

a reply to: Kali74

Well we always get the the carbon credit scam is going to cost us TRILLIONS with a t...

Oh wait the subsides have that same T... Imagine that.

Some think politicians run it...
Some think it's the media moguls...
Some would suggest the bankers...
Some fringers would say the MIC & Hollywood balance the books...

Not even close when you finally get documentation that it's the energy companies.



My Souls energy will never be bought or sold though...

So I win!

& so do you!!!

a reply to: Kali74

You cannot supply current power needs with renewable energy. The math isn't there. Any talk otherwise assumes all kinds of crazy thinking. If you want to go off grid with the same power consumption you have now on the grid, please go price out the costs on a wat per wat basis. Look at your bill and go calculate how much you need. If you can afford it great, but most people can't afford it. Don't forget to factor in maintenance costs...

Last time i looked the solar panel set up alone was around 35K and that was years ago. Until we have fusion power, fossil fuels will reign supreme. Any talk otherwise is not based in reality. I don't think anyone with a realistic outlook thinks there is any chance that renewable energy can take over our growing grid. Any talk is full of a whole lot of "ifs".

V

originally posted by: Variable
a reply to: Kali74

You cannot supply current power needs with renewable energy. The math isn't there. Any talk otherwise assumes all kinds of crazy thinking. If you want to go off grid with the same power consumption you have now on the grid, please go price out the costs on a wat per wat basis. Look at your bill and go calculate how much you need. If you can afford it great, but most people can't afford it. Don't forget to factor in maintenance costs...

Last time i looked the solar panel set up alone was around 35K and that was years ago. Until we have fusion power, fossil fuels will reign supreme. Any talk otherwise is not based in reality. I don't think anyone with a realistic outlook thinks there is any chance that renewable energy can take over our growing grid. Any talk is full of a whole lot of "ifs".

V

But it's changing. No one is saying that we can change everything now, nor should we but we're nearing a tipping point. I for one, am tired of getting fleeced by the fossil fuel/power companies...outrageous monthly bills when they're already getting billions of dollars from the government and getting billions more in tax breaks. If you can't stay in business you need to go under. That's the problem. There will be plenty more entreprenaurs willing to step in of shell goes under...that oil will still be drilled if it needs to be, but without government subsidies. Then you have fracking, which polutes ground water and causes earthquakes. We don't need that...ever. Take those billions that the government puts into big oil and into renewables and you'll see the change happen even faster.

I have a couple of friends with Teslas...I just put solar on my house that provides 95% of my power for no money down...Things are changing.

a reply to: amazing

Exactly.

a reply to: amazing

You consider basically limitless and uninterrupted energy to power all of your electronic devices, AC, and general appliances outrageous in cost? I am always shocked at how low my energy bill is in comparison to how much electricity I used that month, and how much that access to power increased my quality of life overall.

I don't blame you though...when you have nothing serious to worry about you take on stupid crap like this to fight against.

Keep it up!

Fossil Fuels own the means of production.

What do you suppose the oil tycoons do with those subsidies?

Oh, right - things like trying to get scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Society fired because of the fear of linking oil/natural gas and this swarm of earthquakes.

The billionaire CEO of Continental Resources told a dean at the University of Oklahoma that he wanted earthquake researchers dismissed
...
"I'm very approachable, and don't think I'm intimidating," Hamm was quoted as saying in an interview with EnergyWire, an industry publication, that was published on May 11. "I don't try to push anybody around."
...
"Mr. Hamm is very upset at some of the earthquake reporting to the point that he would like to see select OGS staff dismissed," wrote Larry Grillot, the dean of the university's Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, in a July 16, 2014, e-mail to colleagues at the university. Hamm also expressed an interest in joining a search committee charged with finding a new director for the geological survey, according to Grillot's e-mail. And, the dean wrote, Hamm indicated that he would be "visiting with Governor [Mary] Fallin on the topic of moving the OGS out of the University of Oklahoma."
...
Hamm has been a generous donor to the University of Oklahoma, including a 2011 gift of $20 million for a diabetes research center named after the oilman. University President David Boren, a former U.S. senator, sits on the board of directors of Hamm's Continental Resources.

To the credit of the Governor and the University President, nothing has come of his attempts to change things (that we know of).

originally posted by: LDragonFire
This is one reason why they have so much political pull and propaganda machines.

Why are we so dependent on foreign oil, Because they say so that's why!

Why do they have so much money to pay off political pundits and climate change science and politicians.

I think this is where part of the misunderstanding is. It's not that the energy companies have to power to control the world. Most of them are publicly traded companies, which means the owners of their stocks & bonds are the ones with the power to control the world. The companies simply exist to make profits for their owners & stockholders.

People keep overlooking the fact that anyone can buy stocks & bonds from most of these companies. So it's far more likely that politicians, pundits, and the such are heavily invested in them, not the other way around. And why would politicians vote to hurt their own investments? Why would they purposely hurt the investments of their wealthy families, friends & neighbors?

It's like the hedge funds that require several million dollars for a person to have an account with them. Why would people that have family invested in these hedge funds legislate against those investments? That's the reason why financial disclosure laws are so important. Because it's not illegal for members of the US Congress to legislate in fields where they have a personal conflict of interest!

One-hundred-thirty members of Congress or their families have traded stocks collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies lobbying on bills that came before their committees, a practice that is permitted under current ethics rules, a Washington Post analysis has found.

Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms

And this is literally just the tip of the iceberg. (ok, not "literally" since this has nothing to do with icebergs, but you get the point)

a reply to: Variable

Your statement is only correct relative to the climate you live in....around here many people live off grid,solar is generally enough with as little as 300 amp hours on DC batteries as you do not need serious heating to get through a winter,mid may here winter starts next month and i am still swimming in the ocean....where you live plays a big part in energy consumption....

Listen, this is the free market. They are job creators and need that money to create jobs and pay for pesky regulations.

At least they aren't using that welfare to buy food or anything. If they were, we should cut them off.

In all seriousness, imagine if we took those subsidies and took it from fossil fuel and gave it to solar?

a reply to: stormson

In all seriousness, imagine if we took those subsidies and took it from fossil fuel and gave it to solar?

well for a start we would be polluting the land and water a whole lot less.......and that is worth more than money ever will be

originally posted by: corvuscorrax

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: Kali74 I am supposed to be making rich people richer, apparently.

As long as you accept your fate, everything will be just fine.

What is it that you want me to do exactly? Find the Koch brothers or the Rockefellers and confront them?