Report suggests cuts to restore the nation's fiscal and
environmental health
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2010 - The Green Scissors
campaign, a diverse coalition of taxpayer, environmental and
consumer groups, today released Green Scissors 2010, a
report highlighting government programs and subsidies that its
authors believe are wasteful to taxpayers, harmful to the
environment and bad for consumers.
Whether one agrees with all the choices for 'green cuts' or not,
the report is a refreshing cross examination of potentially
wasteful government spending.
Green Scissors 2010 targets four major areas for budget
cuts: energy, agriculture and biofuels, infrastructure, and public
lands. It notes several recent, substantial victories ending
subsidies in the face of special interests' undue influence in
Washington.
"For far too long, the federal government has incentivized
practices that destroy our environment," said Friends of the Earth
Climate and Energy Tax Analyst Ben Schreiber. "This is particularly
true with energy. In the fight to combat global warming, we cannot
continue to subsidize the harmful practices that have forced us
into this dire predicament."
Of the many energy issues targeted in the report, the Coalition
took aim and coal, nuclear and the oil and gas sectors. Taxpayers
have been subsidizing the coal industry for almost 100 years, says
the report. "Thanks to loan guarantees, generous tax credits, and
direct investment in coal technology, the coal industry makes
enormous profits off these massive subsidies."
On the agriculture side, the report is highly critical of
subsidies provided for the production of corn based ethanol.
"Despite its demonstrated environmental damage, corn ethanol
production is subsidized through a number of federal policies in
the name of clean energy, the most significant of which are the
Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax (VEETC ) and the Renewable Fuels
Standard (RFS)."
The VEETC exempts the ethanol portion of gasoline
blends from gasoline
excise taxes and establishes a tax credit for ethanol use. This
massive subsidy does not go to family corn farmers or even
agro-businesses or ethanol producers. Rather it goes almost
entirely to oil companies, such as Shell Oil, that blend the
ethanol with traditional fuel.
"Staring down the barrel of record budget deficits, it is well
past time for lawmakers to tackle our nation's fiscal challenges,"
said Steve Ellis, Vice President of
Taxpayers for Common Sense. "The billions of dollars of cuts
detailed in this report provide lawmakers a veritable menu of
policy options that will help our country's bottom line while also
helping the environment."
"Powerful corporations and other special interests have too much
influence in Washington," said
Tyson Slocum, Director of Energy at
Public Citizen. "We need to reform a system that allows
corporations to charge their pollution to taxpayers' credit cards,"
Slocum added.
The report was highly critical of the the Army Corps of
Engineers that it contends has been a way for lawmakers to bring
government-funded construction projects back to their home
district. "The agency constructs waterway projects dealing with
navigation, flood damage reduction, and environmental restoration.
In many cases, these projects are based more on political power
than national interest."
A particular zinger is aimed at the Highway Trust Fund (HTF)
which receives massive amounts of revenue from the federal gas tax,
but which has been overspending its budget for years.
"With record deficits, it is outrageous that both Congress and
the administration continue to waste money on programs that poison
our air, foul our water and destroy pristine public lands," said
Environment America Washington Office Director, Anna Aurilio. "It's time to save taxpayer
dollars and the environment," she concluded.
Friends of the Earth launched the Green Scissors campaign
fifteen years ago to identify and eliminate environmentally
harmful, wasteful federal projects. Detailed sources for the 2010
report can be provided by the primary authors: Autumn Hanna of Taxpayers for Common Sense
and Ben Schreiber of Friends of the
Earth.
The report can be viewed at http://www.foe.org/green-scissors.