Home page

[16 December 2023] Argentina eliminated fossil fuel subsidies

Argentina has eliminated subsidies for fossil fuel, along with other measures to reduce government expenditure.

Cutting subsidies for fossil fuels is essential for many reasons, but to avoid causing immediate hardship for people of low income, this needs to be accompanied by increased support for people and families of low income. This increase must not depend on actual fossil fuel consumption! Therefore it will compensate for the increased cost of fossil fuels without reducing their price.


[16 October 2022] Wake-up call for the west

*Let Saudi Arabia’s friendship with Putin be a wake-up call for the west.* But not only for realpolitik, and the larger goals should not be limited to human rights and democracy. Curbing global heating fast must also be a first-priority goal, and that means that, starting as soon as possible, we must keep the wholesale price of oil low and the retail price high.

The natural way to do that is with a heavy tax on fossil fuels that is scheduled to increase predictably every year.


[11 October 2022] OPEC driving oil prices up

OPEC has decided to cut supplies of oil and drive the price back up.

If it were only a matter of prices and the short-term economy, I would recommend that the US ship a lot of oil — that would really screw OPEC. However, the most important issue at stake is global heating and the disaster we must avoid. To do the right thing now means helping people get through this winter, in ways that will reduce the long-term demand for fossil fuels.


[5 September 2022] Ovo Energy chief calls for ‘progressive’ scheme for bills similar to tax system

Proposing a progressive price system for electricity and fossil fuels, as a way of helping the poor without subsidizing fossil fuel for the rich.

That would be much better than giving rich people the same subsidy as the poor, but I've already explained that a subsidy for energy is a terrible mistake.


[10 March 2022] Fracking as the way to fight Putin

Although the IPCC has reported that heat itself is starting to kill people (and other living things), the planet roasters are proposing that fracking is the way to fight Putin.

Australia's planet-roaster government is likewise trying to kill you.

In one of Australia's flooded, ruined towns, families now homeless know that the planet-roaster politicians did this to them.

Geg Palast suggests crushing Russia economically by allowing Venezuela to export oil again.

Cheap gasoline has an immediate appeal, but it will destroy civilization. Making fuel expensive is an inherent part of making transport decarbonize. But that should be a steady and gradual process — price shocks are not good for progress.


[16 March 2019] Zimbabwe Army Crimes

Evidence implicates Zimbabwe's army in murder and rape during repression of protests.

There is no cause that so easily stirs up big protests like increasing the price of fossil fuels. Yet this is one of the special issues on which yielding to the protesters implies (even worse) disaster in a few decades.

Perhaps if the price increase is entirely distributed to poor people in other ways, they might accept it.


[9 June 2018] Truck driver strike

Activity in Brazil was brought to a halt by a strike by truck drivers, self-organized and not going through a union. They demanded a lower price for diesel fuel.

By making the price unpredictable, President Temer put the burden on the truck drivers. The country needs to charge more for fossil fuels; subsidy of fossil fuels promotes global heating. However, it needs to make sure that the burden does not fall on truck drivers, but rather on the businesses that use the services of trucks.


[29 March 2018] Massachusetts cap-and-trade

Proposing that Massachusetts adopt a cap-and-trade policy for all activities that use fossil fuels.

The EU adopted a cap-and-trade system, which became a total failure (the price of emissions fell to nearly zero), and then was politically blocked from modifying the system to function. Given that example of failure, I think a tax on carbon emissions is better.


[27 November 2017] Renewable electricity

The low price of renewable electricity generators is leading to massive investments despite the efforts of planet-roasters to hold it back.

Electric power generation is, alas, only one of the sectors that cause greenhouse emissions. There is transportation, which usually means burning fossil fuels; there is deforestation; there is farming.

Converting electric generation to 100% renewable may not be enough to avoid global heating disaster, though it is a big step towards that goal.


[9 October 2016] Carbon tax

James Hanson says we need a carbon tax to make the price of fossil fuels honest.


[23 September 2014] Rockefellers to divest from fossil fuel

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund pledged to divest from fossil fuel.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-21 because the old link was broken.]

In addition to punishing fossil fuel companies' stock price — which could be cancelled out if other investors buy in — the divestment movement can concentrate plutocratic lobbying power in favor of decarbonization. Plutocratic lobbying power is an injustice, and to restore democracy we must get rid of it, but in the mean time setting some of it against global heating is a step forward.


[16 December 2011] Solar Energy

US companies that make solar panels accuse China of dumping them.

That might be true — I would hardly expect the Chinese state to deal fairly or honestly with anyone. However, it appears that the cut-price solar panels have stimulated other US businesses, creating jobs and helping the US move away from fossil fuels.

China responded by accusing the US of dumping the material the solar panels are mainly made from.

Instead of penalizing Chinese solar panels, the US should subsidize domestic producers so they can compete. This way we will move even faster to solar energy.