Subsidies support energy infrastructure and development to benefit consumers. And we pay for them. In tax credits for producers and investors. Direct payments and mandates for low carbon technology. Accelerated expense schedules for oil and gas. And R&D funding. PBS explores with Jonathan Lesser, President of Continental Economics, and Ryan Kellogg, EPIC scholar and Professor at the University of Chicago.
“Pretty much every country in the world uses them, and they play a big part in how society meets its goals for energy, which I tend to think of as revolving around people wanting energy to be low cost. We want it to be reliable. You flip the switch, power should be there, and we want it to not harm the environment, and subsidies play a role in trying to meet any one, or perhaps all three of those goals at once,” says Kellogg.