Fossil Fuels & Nuclear Lion’s Share of DOE R&D Subsidies

Opponents of renewable energy (it’s hard to believe they exist) claim that renewables cannot compete economically with oil, gas, and nuclear power.  I have discussed the fallacy in this argument from an economic theory point of view here, but it is also important to point out that the subsidies for renewables are a tiny fraction of those for coal, oil, and gas.  Many reports on this topic focus on the comparison of overall subsidies to fossils and nuclear vs. oil & gas, but in the context of all the criticism that the Department of Energy (DOE) has gotten after one … Continue reading this post

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Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use

This report by the National Academies examining the externalized/societal costs of energy production was originally requested by Congress  in the 2005 Energy Bill.  It offers the most thorough attempt I have seen to try to quantify the costs we incur in addition to the price we pay for energy (I have written extensively on the topic of externalized/socialized  costs in my Framework Series article on the topic of Market Failure. One key takeaway: looking only at the non-global warming costs of electricity production from coal, society pays 3.2 cents per kWh in hidden costs in addition to the price we pay on our … Continue reading this post

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