Below is the link to a report highlighting the perverse public subsidies offered by the Australian Government to the fossil fuel industry.
Of the $10.1 billion in energy and transport subsidies in 2005-06 financial year, 96% of this money went to fossil fuels. In some cases the annual profits of the fossil fuel companies were less than the subsidies they were given (i.e. they are only profitable through hand-outs of public money).
You make a good point Rob. The house of reps report on geosequestration paints a similar picture. If you add up all the government handouts you get over $700 million in new public funding for carbon capture research. This is not including some additional funding that has already been distributed to projects such as the Monash Energy project.
It is pretty disturbing in the context of how much money this industry already receives via tax breaks, etc. The fossil fuel industry is very profitable for many of the players so it is sad to see further public money going in this direction rather than funding real renewables.
I think it would be a lot fairer to introduce a realistic carbon tax and see if the fossil fuel industry was prepared to invest in CCS with its own money.
Don’t get me started on the $45 million for 4WD recreation….
It would be great if Tosh could post his figures from last night’s presentation.