Energy Subsidies in Other Countries

The U.S. Congress is in the process of enacting its new federal legislation in areas of agricultural and energy policy. In July, the House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the farm bill, while the Senate will tackle its version in September. Meanwhile, both Houses have passed quite different versions of the energy bill. These bills will also need a stamp of approval from the Executive Branch in the fall. Subsidy Watch has asked three experts to highlight what they consider the good and bad in these bills.

Providing subsidies to companies involved in liquid coal, oil shale and tar sands "threatens drastic increases in heat-trapping global warming pollution and severe impacts on popular habitats across the United States and Western Canada," says a report released in June by the New York-based Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC).

Over the last several months the Spanish government has been negotiating with the wind power industry group Asociación Empresarial Eólica (AEE) in an effort to reach a compromise over proposed reductions to renewable energy subsidies. Renewable generation accounted for 18.8 percent of total energy generation in Spain last year, which the Ministry of Industry says is proof that the current levels of subsidies are not necessary.

Greenpeace has released a report that estimates total energy and transport subsidies in Australia at between A$9.3 billion and A$10.1 billion during 2005-06.

Thailand debates cutting oil subsidies Regulators in Thailand are debating three options for oil subsidy reform. These include ending subsidies from the State Oil Fund and oil refineries; simultaneously terminating the State Oil Fund subsidy while continuing support from refineries; or gradually eliminating the subsidy from both the oil fund and refineries.

Fuel prices, fuel taxation and subsidies for petrol and diesel fuel rank high on the world's political agenda, particularly after the spectacular increases in world market prices for crude oil (up to USD 75 a barrel in August 2006) and the subsequent slide in price to around USD 54 a barrel in January 2007.

The United States House of Representatives passed legislation last month that would lower tax breaks and other subsidies that the United States government grants the oil industry.

Oxfam has released a research report, by Lance Taylor and Rudiger von Arnim (both of the New School for Social Research, New York) that presents a review and critique of the most widely used trade models based on computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The emphasis throughout Modelling the Impact of Trade Liberalisation: A Critique of Computable General Equilibrium Models is on methodology.