
White House seeks to end subsidies for electric cars, renewables - prostoalex
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-autos-idUSKBN1O22D4
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nine_k
Good but unilateral.

If subsidies for electric cars are removed, then subsidies for ICE cars should
be removed.

If subsidies for solar electric generation are removed, then subsidies to coal
electric generation should be removed.

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abtinf
What subsidies do ICE cars have that electrics don’t?

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gumby
Cheap extraction leases on public land.

Huge military investment in oil-producing countries and regions.

Building and transport codes built around the needs and technologies of
dinosaur burners.

Lack of significant restrictions on emissions.

I don't think you're gonna get back the sum of the decades of subsidies of
various sorts that cut the cost of technology developments.

(yes, I know they aren't really "dinosaur" burners but alge burners)

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TimesOldRoman
Tarrifs are also a tax.

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gumby
Indeed but this was responding to a request for a list of _subsidies_ for
internal combustion.

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crb002
Not against this. Ethanol subsidy has caused a lot of environmental damage.
Wind subsidy has created a crisis as there is no money to make repairs. Solar
can stand on it's own.

~~~
anonacct37
Just as soon as oil and gas stands on its own (it doesn't) and correctly
prices in the negative externalities (it doesn't). Then the free market can
knock itself out.

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bassman9000
Clickbait. FTFA

 _This story corrects from “will end” throughout, to make clear the White
House cannot end congressionally mandated subsidies on its own, and adds
quote_

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sabertoothed
So, so, so dumb. Dumb decision. You should subsidise renewables and tax all
others for the externalities.

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abtinf
What are the externalities of the renewables?

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AstralStorm
Space usage and maintenance. Modifications of electric grid. Rare metal use.

Compared to health and environmental damage done by mining, gas and oil
prospecting, it's cheap, but not as cheap as nuclear.

~~~
sabertoothed
What makes you think nuclear has less severe externalities?

And I am not even including in my considerations that countries have totally
mismanaged the storage in the past (e.g. UK dumping it into the ocean, Germany
dumping it into an old mine etc.)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
level_radioactive_waste_m...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
level_radioactive_waste_management)

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zeckalpha
What about petroleum and natural gas?

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Theodores
This is only one half of the story, there is also the export drive going on to
force LNG and other hydrocarbon products that 'fracking' is delivering on the
rest of the world. Lame NATO friends of America such as Poland have to buy
expensive LNG from Uncle Sam instead of their Russian neighbours.

The same thing happens with that current hotspot of Ukraine where these
policies have led to a very cold winter for the people that live there. They
are being 'forced' to by that coal that Trump has insisted on getting dug up
from the ground, a fuel nobody wants any more (even though coal fires are so
nice to have).

Renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels, the move to them is unstoppable due
to this price advantage. Much progress is unseen, in a world where people are
so fixated on being negative and nit-picking those building out the carbon
neutral future are quietly getting on with it. They don't need the State
Department and the Pentagon to bully others into buying windfarms. They also
don't need naysayers that claim windfarms are too difficult to maintain or
other hysterical nonsense about 'China and rare earth metals', 'lithium and
polluting wars', 'the power is never there when it is needed' and all of that
tripe. Funny how some people can't collaborate and have to have hissy fits
just so they can stay stuck in the dirty fuel past. Trump is not the problem
here, pettiness from weak minded people who believe what they read in
newspapers is the bigger downer.

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anon2775
The 1% don't care how money is made (who it kills or destroys the planet) so
long that it flows. An existential threat from externalities is just another
new inelastic market to exploit.

