Subsidizing Corps with Profits Bigger than the State's Budget

By Linda E. Small

The state's biggest problem: $2.9 billion a year subsidies to fossil fuel corporations with profits bigger than PA's budget

The subsidies are handed out while small businesses and the middle class struggle to make ends meet and shoulder the load of the state budget of $27.2 billion. Scientists today are finding clear evidence that man made global warming is causing extreme weather, harmful droughts and rising sea level. By the time a toddler today turns 40, around 2050, the US will have a permanent dustbowl in the southwest if we do nothing. There will be more asthma cases as more hot days create more smog. Yet Pennsylvania taxpayers subsidize the fossil fuel industry.

Having all corporations, including fossil fuel corporations, pay a fair share will allow the state to cover the 50% of education costs it did in the early 1990's. 75% of corporations don't pay the Corporate Net Income tax. Closing the loopholes that allows them to escape paying taxes is vital to effectively cutting property taxes. With state funding for education restored, we can stop the pressure on local school boards and taxpayers to both cut services and raise property taxes.

When Pennsylvania subsidizes large corporations, small businesses and renewable energy companies are at a disadvantage. Small businesses are the true job creators. Renewable energy companies create jobs, boost the economy, cut pollution and begin to solve the urgent climate change problem we face. PA must stop giving money to the centuries old fossil fuel industry to allow a 21st century economy based on efficiency and renewable energy to emerge. More importantly, it must stop the subsidies to be fair to future generations who will otherwise live in a world of dustbowls, flooding rains, and rising seas. Scientists are finding that this kind of extreme weather is happening because of manmade global warming. Giving the fossil fuel industry $2.9 billion is negligence of the highest order.

It bears repeating. If we ignore global warming, scientists now predict a permanent dustbowl in the U.S. Southwest by the time today's toddlers turn 40. There will be more asthma cases as more hot days create more smog. There will be more extreme weather. These changes won't just affect the United States, they will occur around the world. Sea level will rise one foot by 2050, and forecasts now range from 3-18 feet higher by 2100. It will be hard to produce food under these conditions. We can expect our children to face an unstable world as people have to move from rising seas and deal with dustbowls. It will be worse for our grandchildren. Many scientists believe there is a tipping point beyond which man can't stop the changes, and runaway warming is a possibility. A $2.9 billion subsidy to the industry causing this problem is a disaster.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_787070.html http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/25/451347/must-read-trenberth-how-to-relate-climate-extremes-to-climate-change/ http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/28/330109/science-of-global-warming-impacts/