Subsidies

A new study by the National Research Council estimates that up to 2 million hydrogen-fueled vehicles could be on American roads by 2020, with that number potentially rising to 25 million a decade later. However, getting there requires getting past a number of hurdles first. The cost of fuel cells must drop and fueling infrastructure must be put in place. That will take substantial subsidies on the part of both government and manufacturers. The study authors estimate that about $200 billion would

The Malaysian government has decided to end its protection of Malaysia's Proton Motors. In addition to the import duties and taxes levied against foreign carmakers, Proton was also the recipient of tax breaks and "other government incentives."

Recently we told you about oil execs explaining to congress how $123 billion in profits should entitle them to an additional $18 billion in the form of subsidies. I realize many of you out there have a lot of sympathy for their position and have spent the intervening time hounding your Congresspersons on their behalf. I mean, this is America and that means energy corporations have

The Times Republican, which is edited in Iowa, has an article written by David Kruse which explains why ethanol should be subsidized, and then have an additional tariff when being imported. A mess? Let me try to explain his point of view a little bit.

The Japanese Trade Ministry is going to provide $1.7 billion in assistance to local carmakers over the next five years to help them develop cleaner cars. They will kick in about $42 million a year toward developing better cheaper batteries for electric cars. The target is to get the retail price of electric cars down under $25,000 by 2010 and under $16,500 by 2020.

A new European Environment Agency (EEA) report has been published that identifies transport as a major stumbling block for the European Union in trying to reach its Kyoto climate change targets. The report, 'Transport and Environment: on the way to a new common transport policy', calls for policy changes to address the massive increase in transport usage over the last twenty years. Passenger transport volumes have grown 20 percent in the EU between 1990 and 2003, and air transport volumes have v

The Biofuels Finance & Investment World was recently held in London at which one of the clearest messages is that biofuels globally are completely dependent on government subsidies. For example, ethanol is energy and monetarily competitive without subsides when oil is $60 per barrel in the US, $35 per barrel in Brazil, and $115 in Europe. The EU Commission estimates that biodiesel is monetarily competitive without subsides when oil is $65 per barrel. But currently NYMEX West Texas Intermedia

A recent study conducted by the Swiss-based group called Global Subsidies Initiative revealed the total cost of the tax breaks and subsidies that go into U.S. production of ethanol to be in the whopping range of $5.1 to $6.8 billion for 2006. It estimates that U.S. tax payers shell out about $17 per million BTUs. For comparison, a 1989 study calculated oil and natural gas subsidies at less than 40 cents per million BTUs after adjusting for inflation.

Professor Michael O'Hare came up with an intriguing concept to deal with the use of fossil fuels to develop ethanol. A common criticism of the alternative fuel is the continued use of these non-renewable resources in its creation: gasoline to power the tractors; coal to power the ethanol plants; and even using chemicals that damage the soil to grow the crops. The U.C. Berkeley professor describes the complex subsidies and import taxes currently surrounding the ethanol industry that make it virtu