As a citizen of Pennsylvania I am, naturally, concerned about the latest state budget. The Governor and state legislature agreed to a $28.4 billion budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. That's a lot of money, but not nearly enough of it goes to beefing up public transit or supporting the development of renewable energy.
Surely, many of us have no doubt thought, there must be ways to cut needless government spending in order to build a greener future in Pennsylvania. I had that thought (for the umpteenth time) just yesterday, and suddenly remembered a great report written a couple of years ago by Christina Simeone, director of the PennFuture Energy Center.
In writing Pennsylvania Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Simeone did some serious digging to figure out to what extent Pennsylvania taxpayers are subsidizing the production and use of fossil fuels.
Gulp. Turns out that we, the citizens of the Commonwealth, are giving away $2.9 billion per year to industries that harm our natural resources through the extraction of fossil fuels, and then belch carbon pollution, mercury, arsenic, and other poisons into the atmosphere.
That represents at least 10 percent of our state budget. At least 10 percent. As the reports points out, there simply are not cost estimates available for many of the subsidies. So much for transparent government, eh?
But don't cry for the dirty fuels folks. Even if we eliminated all fossil fuels subsidies granted by the state, the industry still gets untold billions in subsidies federally.
Are we at PennFuture the only ones who think it's crazy to give away almost $3 billion every year to industries that don't seem to care at all about Pennsylvania's future?
Come on, Harrisburg. Stop the nonsense and stop funding dirty fossil fuels.
