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40 comments on The Sierra Club is not happy

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Glenn on October 14, 2005 - 4:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
When you really start looking at all the subsidies for energy, you pretty much have to look at everything in the chain of energy usage from the source cost of energy to the assets/infrastructure that use that energy.

So for instance, the subsidy that the auto industry gets in having roads made for it is not a direct subsidy for gasoline, but is sure does subsidize the the automobile lifestyle which consumes lots of gasoline. Same with writing off interest on a home loan, allows people to buy bigger homes and therefore they use more energy. and on and on.

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mw on October 14, 2005 - 5:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Without engaging in a debate over the political / geopolitical motives and correctness, US foreign policy is heavily infused with implied subsidies, exerted both via the military arm of governement as well as the political arm.

I once calculated the true cost of every bbl of crude coming out of the US-influenced middle east - my numbers were not very accurate nor scientific, but given that a goodly portion of the military budget is black and/or can't be easily broken down by region, I think my estimate at the time was light.

Crude had been trading near 40$ a barrel; my calculations implied a 26$/bbl surcharge would cover the military operations in the area.

My point is not to criticize or make value judgements; even if not a single drop of oil came out of the region there would still be military installations and investments in the area. But clearly there is a direct relationship between military spending in the region and the region's strategic value for every barrel of oil.

These costs are never talked about.

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Rick on October 17, 2005 - 12:11am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
mw-nice way to think about it. Here's my rough cut today: US consumes 21mbpd, 12mbpd imported, 19% from Persian Gulf. Over the 30 month Iraq war, I get roughly 2 billion barrels imported from the Gulf. Costs for the war are estimated at $208 billion. If you attribute all war costs, and nothing else, as a subsidy for Persian Gulf oil, it's about $100 per barrel subsidy now.

So, we've actually got oil that costs way more than $105, we just didn't notice.

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40 comments on The Sierra Club is not happy

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