US President Barack Obama’s administration will seek to repeal US$46.2 billion in subsidies for oil, natural gas and coal companies during the next 10 years, to fund renewable energy spending, US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said.
The plan is part of Obama’s commitment to lower the US’ dependence on fossil fuels and increase to 80 percent the share of US electricity from “clean” sources by 2035.
Cutting the subsidies will help pay for US$8 billion in “clean energy” investments, Chu wrote on his blog on Friday.
The president is scheduled to present next year’s budget tomorrow.
“Fiscal responsibility demands shared sacrifice,” Chu wrote.
The reduction in subsidies, which would cost energy companies US$3.6 billion next year, could be easily absorbed by the profit-rich oil industry, Obama said in his State of the Union address on Jan. 25. Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s largest company, increased profits to the highest level in more than two years in the fourth quarter, it said on Jan. 31.
“We do not seek and do not ask for any subsidies,” Bill Colton, vice president for corporate strategic planning at Exxon, said in a Jan. 27 conference call with reporters. “If somebody wants to take away incentives from us, we think they should be taken away from everyone.”
The US Department of Energy will also seek to cut the budget for fossil-fuel research by 45 percent, or US$418 million, according to the posting.
The cuts to the fossil energy office include ending a program that studies how to extract oil and gas from shale rock, tar sands and other “unconventional reservoirs,” according to a department fact sheet.
The program also researches how to produce coal from mines now deemed unminable.
Chu said the department was taking “responsible steps to cut wasteful spending and reduce expenses.”
The department also is closing the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, saving US$10.3 million. Last month, the department announced it would shut down the Tevatron at Fermi National Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, saving US$35 million next year.
The budget would cut funding for the hydrogen technology program by more than 41 percent, or about US$70 million, Chu said.
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