The producer benefits of implicit fossil fuel subsidies in the United States.

ABSTRACT: This paper estimates the financial benefits accruing to fossil fuel producers (i.e., the producer incidence) that arise because of implicit fossil fuel subsidies in the United States. The analysis takes account of coal, natural gas, gasoline, and diesel, along with the implicit subsidies due to externalized environmental damages, public health effects, and transportation-related costs. The direct benefit to fossil fuel producers across all four fuels is estimated at $62 billion per year, a sum calculated due to the higher price that suppliers receive because of inefficient pricing compared to the counterfactual scenario where environmental and public health externalities are internalized. A significant portion of these benefits accrue to relatively few companies, and specific estimates are

SUBMITTER: Kotchen MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8018594 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature