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Taxpayer Risks with the Loan Guarantee Program

The Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee program carries extremely high taxpayer risk, potentially jeopardizing billions of taxpayer dollars if energy project loans default....

Crop Insurance Administrative Policy Changes

Several administrative changes could be implemented to reduce taxpayer costs and limit the unintended consequences of federal crop insurance. ...

Transportation Tax Provisions within Fiscal Cliff Deal

The final agreement signed by the president to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” contains several items related to transportation that...

Energy Tax Breaks Catch Ride on Fiscal Cliff Train

At the 11th hour lawmakers and the White House agreed to a deal on the fiscal cliff. While the deal was crafted to address urgent tax...

Oil Shale: Failing Taxpayers for Decades

Since the early 20th century, the federal government and private industry have attempted to commercialize oil shale but after years of...

Subsidizing Oil Shale: Tracing Federal Support for Oil Shale Development in the United States

With fiscal cliff looming, TCS calls for end to government handouts for failed oil shale experiments....

Political Power of the Agribusiness and Crop Insurance Lobbies

The so-called Farm Bill currently being negotiated in Congress is shaping up to be another taxpayer-funded handout to wealthy landowners,...

Haves and Have-Nots in Federal Crop Insurance

Federally subsidized crop insurance has become the largest taxpayer support for agriculture. But not all parts of the agriculture...

Loan Guarantee Program 101

A basic primer on the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program and answers general questions on the history, administration, and overall effect of the program....

Farm Bill 101

The Farm Bill is a massive piece of legislation that guides food and farm policy. It covers wide-ranging topics from rural broadband service to farm subsidy payments....

Agricultural Safety Net 101

The agricultural safety net refers to the various federal programs and policies that insulate agricultural producers from the costs of conducting business....

Green Scissors Campaign 101

A basic primer on the Green Scissors campaign and answers general questions about the history and goals of the coalition....

Sliding Past Sequestration: $2 Trillion in Common Sense Cuts to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff

In the summer of 2011, Congress sent the President a bill that acknowledged failure. Instead of swallowing hard and coming up with...

Not So “Supercritical” Spending

Coal-fired energy production is one of the oldest and most profitable industries in the world. Yet despite decades of success, the well-established coal industry remains on the federal dole. ...

Taxpayer-Backed Loan Guarantees for Liquid Coal: Medicine Bow, Wyoming

(Originally Posted December 2011, Most Recent Update: September 2012) In 2008, Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC applied for a $1.7 billion...

Analysis of FY13 Continuing Resolution: Special Carve-outs

H.J. Res. 117 — Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2013 was released this morning (9/11/2012). TCS staff will be posting relevant documents and analysis as we digest this proposal over the coming days....

Golden Fleece Awarded to Riverboat Ripoff

Taxpayers for Common Sense awarded the Golden Fleece to Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) for introducing H.R. 4342, the WAVE4 Act. This legislation would codify recommendations made by barge operators to increase the federal subsidy for inland waterway construction projects on the nation's rivers....

Big Oil Makes Top Dollar

The first half of 2012 has brought more multi-billion dollar profits for major oil companies. So far, these companies have raked in more...

Department of Energy Loan Guarantees: $8 Billion Allocated for Fossil Fuel Projects

While the program was intended for emerging energy technologies, mature industries like coal and nuclear are eligible as well. Congress provided the program with funding in several areas including advanced nuclear reactors, renewable and energy efficiency, front-end nuclear fuel cycle technology, and advanced fossil fuels....

Coal Industry Profits

For centuries the federal government has been in the business of providing billions in subsidies to coal companies in order to ensure...

Turning a Drought into a Fiscal Disaster

Politicians on both sides of the aisle are trying to take advantage of the drought crisis to foist a trillion-dollar farm bill on...

House Farm Bill Draft Analysis: Squanders Savings, Recycles Wasteful Ideas, and Creates New Subsidy Entitlement Programs

Yesterday, the House Agriculture Committee released its 2012 Farm Bill draft which eliminates some wasteful commodity programs but...

Senate’s New Way to Lock in Unlimited Farm Subsidies

On June 21, the Senate passed a few long-awaited reforms to the farm subsidy maze. Unfortunately, at the same time, they also increased...

Green Scissors 2012

Left-Right coalition identifies practical steps Congress could take to slash deficits, save natural resources....

Federal-Free Risk Management in Agriculture

Like all businesses, agricultural producers face a number of risks in maintaining a profitable enterprise. Successful management of these...

Senate Finance Committee Meets to Talk Energy Tax Reform

The Senate Committee on Finance held a hearing last week on tax reform and its impacts on energy policy. Among the four witnesses from...

Senate Ag Committee: More is Less

(Originally published June 8, 2012) With debate on the 2012 Farm Bill underway on the Senate Floor, proponents of this nearly trillion...

Taylorville Energy Center Pulls Plug on its Coal Project

It appears that one of the top contenders for a loan guarantee under the Department of Energy program has decided to abandon original...

Big Oil Tops $150 Billion in Profits in 2011

With annual financial reports being released this time of year, the oil and gas industry is looking to continue its decade long trend of...

Oil Profits Stay High; Needless Subsidies Continue

It appears the oil and gas industry is looking to continue its decade long trend of record profits. As of February 2nd, Chevron, Exxon...

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Too Costly for Taxpayers

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), also referred to as carbon capture and sequestration, is the process of separating carbon dioxide (CO2)...

The Department of Energy FutureGen Initiative

The latest iteration of the Department of Energy’s FutureGen project (find a timeline here) is a federal initiative to finance and...

Taxpayer-Backed Loan Guarantees for Liquid Coal: Medicine Bow, Wyoming

The Medicine Bow plant has been repeatedly delayed over eight years. Putting the full faith and credit of the U.S. government behind this costly and risky project is fiscally reckless. ...

Cashing In: Biofuels Industry Buys Congress’s Continued Support

Taxpayers for Common Sense today released a report detailing the heavily subsidized biofuels industry's political clout. The biofuels...

Big Oil, Big Profits

Another quarter, another unsurprising set of reports of huge profits for the oil companies. Continuing to be some of the most profitable...

Super Cuts for the Super Committee

Taxpayers for Common Sense has been working hard to meet the challenge of that the so-called Super Committee is facing - $.12-1.5...

Myth v. Fact: Oil and Gas Companies’ Effective Tax Rate

Oil and gas companies have complained that they pay an effective tax rate of 41%....

Big Oil, Big Corn: An in-depth look at the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit

Big Oil, Big Corn: An in-depth look at the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit Corn has been subsidized since the 1930s, but it was...

No Deal on Ethanol for Taxpayers

A small group Senators are attempting to snatch fiscal defeat from the jaws of taxpayer victory on ethanol subsidies. Last month the...

Subsidy Gusher

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) released “Subsidy Gusher: Taxpayers Stuck with Massive Subsidies while Oil and...

The Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit: History and Current Policy

The Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) is the largest subsidy to corn ethanol, the most common biofuel in the U.S. The tax...

Ongoing TCS Analysis of the FY2012 Budget Proposal

The FY2012 Presidential Budget Request was released this morning. TCS staff will be posting relevant documents and analysis as we digest...

Common Sense Cuts—$900 billion in savings over 10 years

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

TCS reaction to Sen. Manchin (D-WV) Statement on Coal Subsidies

We all know that lawmakers are allowed the occasional stretching of the truth, but at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources...

TCS Recommended Budget Cuts for the 112th Congress

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

TCS and the Grocery Manufacturers Association Hold a Briefing on the Impacts and Future of the Corn

Also in attendance is Iowa State University economist Bruce Babcock. Click hereClick herePolicy Briefs: "Let the VEETC Expire:...

Third Quarter Results are in and still the same story: Billions in profit, billions more in subsidie

Total SA made $3.2 in the third quarter; Shell: $3.5; Chevron: $3.8; Exxon: $7.4; and most telling of all, BP has emerged back into the...

Ethanol Editorials: Newspapers Across the County Agree - End Ethanol Subsidies!

 Newspapers Across the Country Agree: End Ethanol Subsidies! In light of TCS’ release of the Green Scissors 2010 Report on July 22 and...

Green Scissors 2010

Taxpayers for Common Sense joined a number of environmental and consumer groups and a bipartisan slate of Representatives today in...

FutureGen: Massive Clean Coal Project Changes Track, Still Securing $1 Billion Earmarked in the Stimulus

Today, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the plan to build “FutureGen” a massive commercial “clean coal” facility in Mattoon,...

Senate Appropriations Committee Passes Energy and Water Bill—Includes $17 billion in Risky Loan Guarantee

On July 22, the Senate Committee on Appropriations passed the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill. The $34.97 billion bill...

Oil and Gas Industry: A Decade of Record Breaking Profits

Big Oil has made Big Money over the last decade. In fact, the last five years proved to be some of the most profitable for any U.S....

Mining Companies Enchanted by New Mexico Giveaways

New Mexico is one of the most heavily mined states in the country, producing large amounts of perlite, copper, and other hardrock...

Arizona Public Lands in Mining Company Hands

Arizona is one of the most heavily mined states in the country, producing large amounts of copper, silver and other hardrock minerals....

Obama to Contractors: Don’t Cheat Uncle Sam

It was payback time for President Obama this week when he threw down the gauntlet to tax-dodging contractors.Taxpayers pay contractors...

The Percentage Depletion Allowance (PDA): A Double Giveaway for Hardrock Mining Companies

For decades, hardrock mining companies have benefited from generous tax breaks at the expense of taxpayers, all the while extracting...

Oil and Gas Royalties: Relief for Oil and Gas Companies, a Fiscal Headache for Taxpayers

Oil and gas companies that drill offshore or on public lands are required to pay for the oil and gas they remove in the form of royalties. However, because of out-dated energy policy and mismanagement of royalty collection, oil and gas companies often pay little to no royalties to the owners of the resources—U.S. taxpayers. At a time when oil companies have experienced five years of record profits, there is no need to subsidize the industry with royalty holidays. With prices at more than $80/barrel, and predicted to increase, the industry has ample incentive to produce more oil without taxpayer subsidies. ...

Oil and Gas Industry Profits

Another Huge Year Exxon Mobil likes breaking records. In 2007, it posted the biggest annual profit number reported by any American...

Coal: A Long History of Subsidies

Subsidies to the coal industry began in 1932, when the federal government allowed companies to deduct a portion of their income to help...

TCS Fact Sheet: Coal Industry Profits

In 1932, the federal government began giving subsidies to the coal industry in order to help the industry recover initial capital...

Ethanol Subsidies: Too Much for Too Little

Through a combination of subsidies, trade restrictions, and government mandates a handful of corporate agribusinesses and oil companies...

Water Infrastructure Spending in the House Economic Stimulus

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructs large water projects (dams, levees, pumping sand on beaches)...

Analysis of Energy Tax Provisions Included in the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

The following is a summary of the non-consumer energy tax breaks included in H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008....

Bailout Bank Bio: Capital One Financial Inc

Capital One Financial is a financial services company whose products and services include consumer and commercial banking and credit card...

Royalty-in-Kind:  A Costly Complication

Under intense pressure from the oil and natural gas industry, the Minerals Management Service (MMS)1 started the Royalty-in-Kind (RIK)...

Clean Coal Projects: Cleaning Out the Pockets of Taxpayers

Since the late 1970’s, the federal government has funneled billions of dollars into “Clean Coal” technology and programs designed to make...

Very Little of Iraq Oil Surplus Goes to Rebuilding

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report tabulating U.S. and Iraqi expenditures on rebuilding efforts (click here for...

Terrorism Insurance Giveaway

Following the airline industry's lead, insurance executives have been lobbying Congress for terrorism insurance legislation that will...

Passing the Buck

How the Mining Industry Used Outdated Rules to Pass Environmental Cleanup Costs to Taxpayers...

Troubled Waters

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is wasting billions of dollars on environmentally harmful projects, charges a new report by Taxpayers...

Welfare for Waste

How Federal Taxpayers Subsidies Waste Resources and Discourage Recycling...

Engineering Boondoggles

While Washington is wringing its hands about the automatic across-the-board budget cuts known as...