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News Release
For Immediate Release:
January 31, 2002
For More Information Contact:
Montana Public Interest Research Group
David Ponder, Executive Director
(406) 243-2908
Polluters Poised to Reap $62
billion in Tax Dollars
Already Out-of-Control Government Giveaways to
Oil, Coal and Nuclear Power Could Double Under House Energy Bill
Government subsidies to oil, coal and nuclear power industries could
double if the Senate passes H.R. 4, the House energy bill, according
to a report released today by MontPIRG, Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers
for Common Sense, Sierra Club and Republicans for Environmental Protection
among others. “Running on Empty: How Environmentally Harmful Energy
Subsidies Siphon Billions from Taxpayers” details new and existing subsidies
to oil, coal, gas and nuclear industries that would total more than $62
billion over the next 10 years.
In “Running on Empty,” MontPIRG estimates that existing handouts
to polluting energy industries totaling $33 billion will be increased
by nearly 100 percent, to $62 billion, if the House energy bill (H.R.
4) is signed into law. Industry allies in Congress are promoting these
new subsidies, despite the erosion of a four year budget surplus into
a potential $100 billion deficit.
“We’re witnessing a doubling in handouts to polluters - a whopping
$62 billion in taxpayer money to oil, coal, gas and nuclear industries
in combined new and existing subsidies,” said MontPIRG Executive Director,
David Ponder. “With the tight budget situation we’re in, there’s a clear
challenge here to the Senate to do the right thing and avoid the route
the House has taken.”
The Senate is poised to begin debate on its own energy bill (S.1766)
in early February. While the legislation is currently incomplete,
some dirty energy subsidies are already emerging.
Among the dirty energy subsidies in the House and Senate bills, and
the federal budget, targeted by “Running on Empty” are:
* The “clean coal” program that found its way into both the House
and Senate energy bills. The federal government has already spent $2 billion
on this ineffective subsidy to coal companies and utilities – and the House
and Senate bills would hand out at least $2 billion more. Western SynCoal
LLC, a subsidiary of Montana Power Company, received funding to demonstrate
its Advanced Coal Conversion Process in Colstrip, Montana, adjacent to
Western Energy Company's Rosebud Mine. This project, with an estimated
cost of $105,700,000, was scheduled to be completed in 2001.
* The Price-Anderson Act, which props up an ailing nuclear industry
that produces deadly waste for which there is no safe disposal option.
Price-Anderson represents a multi-billion dollar insurance subsidy that
shields nuclear power plants from the full cost of a nuclear accident.
* The Department of Energy’s oil and coal research and development
programs, which are projected to cost taxpayers almost $2.5 billion over
the next ten years. These programs subsidize mature, polluting industries
and increase American reliance on energy supplies that represent the
greatest source of smog, acid rain and global warming pollution. For example,
Montana’s oil and coal-fired power plants released 18 million tons of carbon
dioxide, 34,845 tons of nitrogen oxide, and 20,248 tons of sulfur dioxide
in year 2000 alone.
Many of these programs, used by some of the nation’s biggest corporations,
have been subsidized by federal taxpayer dollars for decades. “Adding
insult to injury, the companies are using taxpayer money in ways that
devastate our water, our air, our land our health,” added David Ponder,
Executive Director of MontPIRG. “For example, in 2000, an estimated
116 citizens of Montana suffered asthma attacks from power plant pollution.
Over the last eight years, the Green Scissors Coalition has helped
to cut or eliminate $26 billion in environmentally harmful spending programs
from the federal budget.
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MontPIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy group
with over 5,000 members in Montana.
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Energy