Step in the Right Direction

This debate over subsidies is emblematic of the split between economists and environmentalists. The oil and coal lobby has money, so much so that the oil industry is subsidizing the government more than the other way around. Against a backdrop of economic crumble, the fight in Washington over energy subsidies is understandable.

Yet, is money more important than survival? The endurance of the human species and the Earth as we have known it? If oil and coal create fossil fuels and fossil fuels are the planet’s demise, then we need to ditch oil and coal. The problem is facilitating that transition. Are we going to wait until we use up our resources or until greenhouses gases warm the Earth beyond human living conditions?

This switch from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas that Obama proposes is a step in the right direction. Although H Jeffrey Leonard and others make a good point regarding the subsidy structure and the way that it benefits oil, coal, nuclear, and corn based ethanol, subsidies are not the problem. Rather, what benefits from the subsidies can be problematic. Environmental groups purport that we eliminate subsidies for energy all together, but would clean energies have a chance? I think we need to continue to fight for restructuring of the subsidy process in order to favor clean energies.

As Michael Levi claims, we need better policies to ensure that fossil fuels don’t dominate. There is an uphill battle for those fighting to steer us in the right direction: away from dependence on fossil fuels and towards energy use that won’t contribute to our demise.