Letter: Eliminating fuel subsidies would appear to transcend ideologies
A salient point of Ellyn Murphy’s Dec. 29 letter to the editor was that unlike garbage disposal, discharges of carbon dioxide are free.
Ironically, carbon dioxide pollution is not only free, but the use of fossil fuel is encouraged globally by subsidies to the coal, oil, and natural gas industries. The global fossil fuel subsidy estimate for 2014 by the International Energy Agency is $490 billion.
The International Monetary Fund estimates the total cost for fossil fuel subsidies at $5.3 trillion, 6.9 percent of the global gross domestic product. The IMF estimate includes the costs of the effects on people’s health, the environment and climate change.
Eliminating production subsidies for coal in the Powder River Basin would raise the price of coal 30 percent, reducing demand and therefore the emissions equivalent to as many as 32 coal-fired plants.
These estimates are in stark contrast to the pledge by industrialized nations to spend $100 billion a year by 2020 to fight climate change. Without subsidies, emission reductions of 20 percent are possible.
Politically, eliminating fuel subsidies would appear to transcend ideologies, with the left applauding the environmental benefits and for the right, the cost of crony capitalism becomes a cost savings.
Mickey Beary, Richland
This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Letter: Eliminating fuel subsidies would appear to transcend ideologies."