The Obama administration’s proposed budget for 2012 gives an indicator of just how much fossil fuels have been subsidised over the years, at the expense of renewable energy development.
In U.S. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech last month, he mentioned the following in relation to the oil, gas and coal industries:
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.”
Today, further details were provided as to how much money going towards fossil fuel subsidies the Obama administration would like to re-route to building America’s clean energy economy. One of the goals of Obama’s clean energy vision, mentioned by U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in an online town hall meeting dubbed “Energy Matters“, includes a reduction of the cost of solar panel based solar energy to a quarter of what it is today by 2020.
Jack Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, commented that “to help pay for these investments, lower priority programs are cut, and we eliminate 12 tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal companies that will raise $46 billion over 10 years.”
Obama may have a very tough time getting this aspect of the 2012 budget through as the Republicans now have control of the House of Representatives – many of whom are staunch supporters of fossil fuel industries.
The proposed budget provides the Department of Energy with $29.5bn for the 2012 financial year and approximately $8 billion of that figure would go towards renewable energy research and development projects in wind energy, solar power and advanced battery technology.
