Subsidies To Oil Companies

A friend from the world of acting writes:

I am sincerely naive about stocks, international finance, etc. My life has been about art and human rights so please accept this in a truly non-political sense.

I don’t understand continuing subsidies to oil companies when profits seem to soar and execs get massive bonuses…especially when it seems tied to horrific human suffering. I’m open to sincere comments that can expand my understanding.

This is a point I’ve been making consistently over the 15 years I’ve been professionally associated with energy markets. The fossil fuel industry is more than 100 years old, and it’s the wealthiest enterprise in human history. Oil, natural gas, and coal are what made the 20th Century what it was in terms of economic growth, but now it’s time to make the transition to energy resources that don’t have the issues like pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and, as you mentioned, war.

Subsidies are meant to bolster things that are good for society, and fossil fuels have long since ceased to be among them.

You mentioned a “non-political sense,” but there is no way to avoid the fact that the only force holding all this up is, in fact, politics. Big Oil is doing everything in its considerable power to strong-arm Congress so as to remain embedded in our society, regardless of its ill-effects.