Playing favorites or ‘all of the above’?
Roger H. Bezdek (rbezdek@misi-net.com) is president of Management Information Services Inc., and Robert M. Wendling is vice president with the firm.
The issue of federal incentives for energy industries is highly contentious and has serious implications —for U.S. energy policy, environmental policy, and for budgets and deficit reduction. Thus far, unfortunately, the debate has suffered from a lack of rigorous empirical data. And that lack extends to the amounts, distributions, and forms of federal incentives. It only encourages an excess of rhetoric, claims, and counterclaims.
For example, renewable energy advocates and environmentalists contend that the federal government provides large subsidies and incentives to the fossil and nuclear industries, while offering relatively little to renewable energy. The oil and gas industries contend that their subsidies are modest and are essential for increasing production. And so forth.