After a narrow defeat in the senate, the concept of diverting subsidies, tax breaks given to big oil monopolies, is actually getting some notice.
A modest propsal to divert a measly 13 billion over 10 years in oil company tax breaks (only 1.3 billion per year out of the 18 billion per year total) and apply them in part to renewable energy subsidies was just too hard to get by oil lobbyist controlled legislators. But it's a start.
And subsidy diversion got some media attention too! No new taxes, no new hedge fund trading scheme (cap and trade), and no caps that can be raised anytime the GOP gets into power. It will take awhile for the mass media to understand those advantages though.
Just a really simple plan. Take away corporate welfare for big oil, coal, nukes, and agribizz fuel farming.
Give it to investors in solar panels and so forth at the rate of 10 cents per GHG free kwh, or kwh saved with conservation.
A multi-million small donor green candidate donation/letter writing campaign could swing this into gear. imagine 20..50..or even 100 billion per year taken away from corporate welfare for filthy energy monopolies, and devoted to a direct subsidy.
Checks direct to homeowners and farmers who install solar, wind farms, and farm biogas systems. Forget the bushwacker's stimulus, this would be a real stimulus package that attracted a trillion per year in private investment. A real renewable energy boom!
Corporations dragged kicking and screaming from the fossil, nuclear, fuel farm teat, would find even greater profitability manufacturing all the devices needed for this GHG free energy economic revival.
An interesting history channel presentation on Churchill and Roosevelt, covered Roosevelt's "arsenal of democracy" speech, in which he layed out the plan for the US to supply the allies with war material to fight Hitler. It was before we entered the war.
A new arsenal of democracy to defeat oil monpolies and the terror supporting oil rich nations as well as GHG climate disaster is now possible. A peacefull arsenal of renewable energy and conservation devices, mass produced with the boost that subsidy diversion would give it.
