Oil companies receiving subsidies

October 15, 11:26 AMDallas Environmental Policy ExaminerCaroline Calais

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Concerned with increased food prices, the Texas legislature abandoned its biofuels incentive program last year. Now the European Union might do the same. Soaring crop prices and concern over the environmental impact of biofuels are raising questions over the 2007 EU policy requiring 10% of the transport sector to use biofuels by 2020.

With Texas and the European Union rethinking the approach - Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has, for example, introduced legislation calling for a freeze of the ethanol mandate on current level -  the federal government does not. The Environmental Protection Agency denied in August Governor Rick Perry’s request to reduce the national biofuels mandate from 9 billion gallons, to 4.5 billion gallon.

This means that federal taxpayers still will spend about 26.5 % on ethanol subsidies. And where federal taxpayers today are spending 0.5% on oil and gas subsidies, 11.6% on wind, and 12.3 on solar, Texas taxpayers spend  0 % on ethanol subsidies, 1.5% on oil and gas, 0.2% on wind, and 9.2% on solar.