The Trump Department of Energy hasn’t completely forgotten the need for energy conservation and innovation. Last week the DOE announced nine million dollars in grants for fifteen solar and wind power projects in tribal communities. One of those projects is on the Rosebud Reservation:
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe Tribal Utilities Commission in South Dakota will install 250 kW of solar PV to offset approximately 45% of the electric load of the 30 housing units and one community building that comprise the Sicangu Village [Betsy Lillian, “DOE Funds Solar, Wind Projects on Tribal Land Across the Country,” Solar Industry, 2018.08.16].
This grant covers half the $900,000 price tag of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s latest solar project.
True libertarians concerned that nine million dollars of federal intrusion into the energy marketplace is unjust should note that the federal government provides $14.7 billion in subsidies for oil, gas, and coal.
Good. Does the Rosebud have a source for the rest of the money? I wonder if they’ve talked to the Shakopee tribe?
Debbo, some casual Googling hasn’t turned up whether any Shakopee money is headed for thie Rosebud solar project, but they Shakopee tribe certainly supports renewable energy.
Shakopee donated 75K to Rose Bud for Farmers Markets and then there was an article about KILI Radio on Pine Ridge but I couldn’t access the page. KILI put up a wind turbine and solar panels. Henry Red Cloud is involved in the solar stuff.
KILI rocks!! Listen to Arlo Iron Cloud for the true story on The Ridge.
$20 Billion for oil yearly, $40 Billion for Ethananol, poor mileage on your vehicle for another $4 Billion. No wonder we are always warring with countries who have oil, it is a racket.
“And the federal government not only requires the use of ethanol; it also subsides it. Tax credits between 1978 and 2012 cost the Treasury as much as $40 billion. Moreover, numerous other federal programs, spanning multiple agencies, allot billions of dollars to ethanol in the form of grants, loan guarantees, tax credits, and other subsidies.
Taxpayers suffer in other ways, too. Vehicles can drive fewer miles per gallon using ethanol blends than they would with pure gasoline. So Americans end up spending an extra $10 billion per year for fuel, the Institute for Energy Research estimates.” https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/01/donald-trump-ethanol-subsidy-support-bad-taxpayers/
We are failing our future. We are broke to the point that education suffers and is broken, healthcare suffers and is broken and our environment suffers and our people die from its pollution. We are broke while the oil companies continue to soil our waters and our air, while reaping huge amounts of money from our pockets.
http://www.kiliradio.org/
Ok, $900,000 to supply 45% of the power to 30 houses. . . Let’s all do the math together: There are 24 hours in a day and this will supply 45% of the power. That means each of the 30 houses will receive power for 10.8 hours a day. $900,000 divided by the 30 houses means each house will get $30,000 worth of the cost towards paying for their electricity. The average electrical cost for a 1,000 SF home per year is $950. Being that we are only going to have 45% of the cost covered that number would really be $427.50 saved per year per house. $30,000/$427.50 = 70.17/yr. This means if the home owner were to have paid for the array it would take just over 70 years to recoup the cost of the solar array but a solar array normally only has a life span of 30 years so this money will never be recouped. Had the $900,000 been put in your average mutual fund earning 10.23% for 20 years each family would get $210,434.72 but that would mean waiting 20 whole years instead of saving $427.50 a year today and the tax payers would have had to agree to use the money as an investment instead of a solar array which the tax payer didn’t agree to do either but someone that doesn’t know anything about math thought it was a good idea to bring “green energy to the reservation. $900,000. . . 30 families. . . $30,000/family. . . enough to pay for college for one kid from each family. . . but hey, this is a solar array. It’ll look cool and we can all say “look what we did for them!!” Ya think this is what whitey thought when we took their kids and put them in boarding schools? Porter, what say you?
I think it is called a subsidy. We all clearly know what that is, including someone with Russian ties, that being you Old Soviet.
Socialism works for big oil, Socialism works for ag producers, Why can’t Socialism work for renewable energy?
Actually the fact is oil companies do not get subsidies. Oil companies get the same exact tax breaks any manufacturer or company gets. McDonald’s, Wally World, Exxon, even your Mom & Pop grocer, all of them get the same tax break and here is what that is: When McDonald’s buys a freezer they get to subtract the cost of that freezer from their taxable income. When Exxon drills a well they get to subtract the cost of drilling that well from their taxable income. When the Swan’s guy drives his truck to your house to sell you ice cream Swan’s gets to subtract the cost of driving that truck to your house from their taxable income.
Did you know, if Cory were making money on this site, he could deduct the cost of maintain the site from his income just like the oil companies do? Does that make Cory and the evil oil companies both evil subsidy takers? Do you all now understand that the oil companies get the same tax breaks everyone else gets but some people lie about it and call it a subsidy? It’s their way of being nasty about others by claiming the oil companies are getting something they don’t get.
Old Sh*tMonkey is spouting the Russian propoganda, again.
Oil companies get nine significant tax breaks that need removal. Let’s start with the one he tried to float over us, like a Putin balloon. (Sarge isn’t old. He’s in his 30’s but acts like a juvenile.)
~ As a general practice, businesses deduct business costs from their income. But for large capital projects, they do so over the lifetime of the asset or project, not during the period in which the cost was incurred. Oil and gas companies, however, can deduct intangible drilling costs—nearly all of the expenditures a company makes to prepare a well for production—upfront, which can lower their taxable income significantly. Independent oil and gas producers can deduct 100 percent of their intangible drilling costs in the first year. Integrated oil companies can deduct 70 percent of these costs in the first year and then amortize the remaining 30 percent over five years.
Here are the other eight …
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2016/05/26/138049/it-is-time-to-phase-out-9-unnecessary-oil-and-gas-tax-breaks/
Even Portly calls the “tax breaks” not subsidies. Portly called Cory a liar.
Dang Portly! I read your link and they agree as well they are tax breaks not subsidies!! I guess your right about Cory. . . Very sad
Old Soviet and the Russian talking points. Treason is just another word for nothing left to loose.
Oh! Good come back jerry! You’re heartless. . . Tore me up. I’m blinded by you wit. Can’t seem to even stand. Rockin in place. . .
Big Oil demands another 12 Billion to protect itself from climate change. Port Arthur Texas, the place where the Canadian tar sands will go after polluting South Dakota to be refined and then shipped to China, is in trouble.
“PORT ARTHUR, Texas (AP) — As the nation plans new defenses against the more powerful storms and higher tides expected from climate change, one project stands out: an ambitious proposal to build a nearly 60-mile “spine” of concrete seawalls, earthen barriers, floating gates and steel levees on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Like other oceanfront projects, this one would protect homes, delicate ecosystems and vital infrastructure, but it also has another priority — to shield some of the crown jewels of the petroleum industry, which is blamed for contributing to global warming and now wants the federal government to build safeguards against the consequences of it.”
https://apnews.com/4adc5a2a2e6b45df953ebcba6b63d171
Me, I would rather my tax dollars go to renewable energy than to keep the same antiquated system of transportation in place. Bring on the solar and wind for the good of all and especially to those who Dance to the Sun and its Power.
OldSarg, you understand that those parts of my original post that show up in bold blue (or maybe underlined, depending on your browser settings) are hyperlinks that take you to other sources, right?
It seems you don’t, or you just ignore them, because the final link in my original post pre-empted your false claim that oil companies don’t get special subsidies but merely claim tax breaks available to bloggers and other other businesspeople. That Vox article, updated last month, cites the intangible drilling deduction and many more that don’t show up on my Schedule C.
Coal gets special breaks, too, via cheap leases to mine federal land. I get no comparable cheap lease from the feds to grind up mountains to produce blog posts.
Plus:
I can’t even remember what point you thought you were making, OS, because the only point you are making is that you are incapable of rational, evidenced argument, thus explaining (though not excusing) your obvious preference for distraction and cheap personal insults.
It took me five minutes to prepare this comment, including looking back and forth at the Roberts article, choosing the most relevant information, and coding the style items. In those five minutes, I could have just piled up several brutal personal epithets to try making OS feel bad. But making one good policy argument, with evidence, is much more satisfying, logical, responsible, and beneficial for all of my fellow citizens.
Tax breaks and subsidies are as similar as taxes and fees. Both have the same results in macro economics.
Economist David Friedman argues that a subsidy and a tax credit for a given activity “differ only in labeling.” Friedman continues, “They have the same effect on the federal budget. They provide the same amount of subsidy.” James Wilson of Downsize DC agrees.