Subsidies mask the true costs of fossil fuels

Last Sunday’s Viewpoints contained two columns on energy independence, one advocating aggressive government spending to cut our nation’s dependence on foreign energy and fossil fuels, the other concluding that the marketplace would do a better job dealing with the problems of rising prices and consumption than any government agency could.

According to the author of the marketplace article, the problem with alternative technologies and fuels is that they simply are not economical; despite recent unprecedented increases in price, fossil fuels are still less costly than renewable energy.

This argument fails to take into account how the market has been distorted by the massive subsidies for oil and natural gas, dating to 1916 – subsidies that taxpayers continue to pay even as the oil and gas industries flourish.

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