MoJo Not Always Wrong on Energy

Mother Jones (“MoJo”) is a lefty rag with an unrealistic outlook on life. Once in a while, though, they get it right.

For example, MoJo hates taxpayer subsidized high speed rail in California. Well, I also hate taxpayer subsidized high-speed rail in California. And for the same reason! We both see it as being an unrealistic boondoogle.

This week, MoJo again made a modicum of sense with a well-written and good-looking interactive piece that both explains and decries tax breaks for oil and gas producers. It’s a worthwhile read. Regardless MoJo’s evident disdain for an industry that has been the only bright spot in the U.S. economy since the great global recession, the article is fact-filled and it has some neat infocharts.

And again, MoJo’s is a message with which I agree. Industry specific tax breaks—indeed, all preferential tax treatments—are inefficient and wasteful. I’m with MoJo: Let’s do away with oil and gas’s perks…

….And, at the same time, let’s do away with wind and solar and ethanol and all other “green” energy subsidies and mandates. Then, let’s wait 5 years, and here’s what I bet we’ll see: the utter absence of green energy, having been wholly vanquished on the market by conventional energy sources*. Because green energy tends to be expensive, intermittent, or both, the industry cannot exist absent political favoritism. Otherwise, no one would buy its products. On the other hand, conventional energy sources, primarily fossil fuels, aren’t wholly reliant on taxpayer handouts and mandates, as consumers would buy these products of their own accord.

Don’t take my word for it! Even the top lobbyist for the wind energy industry admits that his clients would go “bust” if the Congress fails to extend a single subsidy, despite the fact that the industry enjoys mandates forcing ratepayers to buy their energy in 30 States.

*Absent, of course, all of the expensive, long-term contracts that utilities have signed with green energy developers, in order to achieve the aforementioned green energy mandates in 30 States.