Stand with DeMint: End all energy subsidies

DeMint has a problem, even with the RINO and near RINO Republicans, because he wants limited government and pursues it. Farmers, usually friendly to Republicans, will be upset if the ethanol subsidies go away. Even though the bill shows no favorites, its adoption hurts many special interests. I may be wrong, but I believe that almost all Democrats and even some Republicans representing the farm belt and oil and gas regions of the country, will vote against the bill and it will be defeated. Too bad we let the government get so big that the special interest groups trump common sense and the health of the Country.

Excerpt: The Senate will vote this week on Senator Jim DeMint’s Senate Amendment 1589, which would eliminate all energy tax subsidies. The DeMint Amendment would end the usual games of Republicans subsidizing fossil fuels and Democrats subsidizing renewables. This vote will tell us, clearly, which senators think we as consumers should be in charge of making our own energy decisions and which senators want to make those decisions for us — at a cost of billions of our tax dollars.

In 2010, the federal government gave away $37 billion in energy subsidies — more than twice what it gave as recently as 2007. Washington gave $2.8 billion to oil and natural gas, $1.4 billion to coal, $5 billion to wind, $6.6 billion to biofuels, and $1.1 billion to solar.

Relative to output, renewables, which provide only a tiny fraction of the overall energy mix, are massively more subsidized than fossil fuels. In 2010, subsidies per megawatt-hour were $0.63 for natural gas, $0.64 for coal, $52 for wind, and $968 for solar.

President Obama looks at the billions of dollars being lavished on wind and solar and insists that we need to “double down” on these expensive, unreliable technologies. This is despite the fact that the European countries that have massively subsidized wind and solar are suffering as a result. The average price of electricity in Germany, for instance, is now more than triple the average price in the U.S., but wind and solar are still struggling to compete there.

It’s appropriate that Obama keeps using the gambling terminology “double down,” because this use of our tax dollars has less chance of paying off than a trip to the casino.

The so-called NAT GAS Act, offered side-by-side with the DeMint Amendment, is another classic example of Washington corruption and cronyism. It would provide subsidies of up to $64,000 per big-rig truck converted to natural gas, as well as subsidies for cars, fueling stations, and every other aspect of the natural gas vehicle supply chain.

If Washington intervenes in the natural gas market and artificially boosts demand in the transportation sector, there will be unintended consequences. Natural gas prices, which are now at historic lows, will jump. That means higher home heating bills and higher prices for all the industries that use natural gas as a feedstock.

The DeMint Amendment gives the Senate an opportunity to get rid of all these subsidies, all at once, across the board. It’s a critical test of seriousness that will reveal which senators actually understand and believe in the free market.

The message of the 2010 election was crystal clear. Voters rejected big-government intrusion and cronyism. Cap and trade, the biggest intervention in energy markets ever proposed, was one of the big ingredients in the landslide. Senators who react to that election by insisting on vast new energy subsidies for wind or natural gas have entirely missed the point.

Any Republican who votes against the DeMint Amendment sends the embarrassing message that Republicans have no problem picking winners and losers, rewarding friends and allies, and interfering in free markets. They just prefer different technologies. Sad.

Read the full Daily Caller article here.