Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Legislation and Policy
Earlier today, we covered the words of some auto industry insiders at the recent Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminar in Traverse City, MI, who said the didn't like that the Obama Administration was "picking winners" by funneling funds on plug-in vehicles. Well, okay, they're entitled to their opinion. But, if the industry doesn't want governments to push one particular energy type over another, maybe auto industry execs should seriously reconsider their support of fossil-fueled engines.
The reason? The Guardian recently reported that Bloomberg New Energy Finance has issued a report that found government subsidies for fossil fuels around the world just plain blow out renewable energy subsidies ten-to-one. Yes, for every dollar the auto execs don't want spent on plug-in vehicles, there are more than ten bucks given to keep the gas and oil companies in the
Bloomberg New Energy Finance CEO Michael Liebrach told the Guardian:
So, auto execs: we appreciate everything you're doing to give us more efficient vehicles, but maybe you should keep a lid on it when it comes to policy complaining unless you're ready for real change. Just make getting off gas yesterday's news.One of the reasons the clean energy sector is starved of funding is because mainstream investors worry that renewable energy only works with direct government support. Setting aside the fact that in many cases clean energy competes on its own merits - for instance in the case of well-situated wind farms and Brazilian sugarcane ethanol - this analysis shows that the global direct subsidy for fossil fuels is around 10 times the subsidy for renewables.
[Source: The Guardian via Treehugger | Image: anolobb - C.C. License 2.0]
On "picking winners": fossil fuel industry raking in 10x the subsidies compared to renewables originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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