http://blog.iisd.org/2010/04/22/earth-day-time-to-consider-how-fossil-fuel-subsidy-reform-can-contribute-to-climate-change-energy-security-and-poverty-alleviation-goals/
Fossil-fuel subsidies drive to the heart of sustainable development: removing them has the potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and open investment pathways for cleaner sources of energy; it frees vast sums of money – for both developed and developing country budgets – to spend on other priorities such as healthcare and education; and it helps to move us away from our dependency on what we know well to be a finite resource.
http://www.oilsandswatch.org/media-release/1242
Groups from across Canada today renewed calls for the federal government to eliminate massive tax subsidies to the country's booming oil and gas industry. Last fall the groups formally petitioned Canada's Auditor General to investigate the billions of dollars in government tax breaks to oil and gas companies....The most recent data, based on government figures, show that the industry receives $1.4 billion annually in federal tax breaks.
Why does the fossil fuel extraction industry need tax breaks and government subsidies? Does that poor, pitiful struggling industry need help from governments of all stripes including the Canadian government? It must - it receives them. So, we the taxpayers, are helping the fossil fuel industry belch greenhouse gas emissions! As the former President of Costa Rica, J.M. Figueres, stated, "if you don't want more of something, then don't subsidize it."
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