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

Feb 3, 2011 | 3 min read | Print Article

We all know that lawmakers are allowed the occasional stretching of the truth, but at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing this morning, newly elected Sen. Manchin (D-WV) threw out a whopper. When the issue of energy subsidies to certain energy industries was brought up, Sen. Manchin (D-WV) said:

“The only energy source which is the greatest source that we have as far as what we’re dependent on right now is coal. It doesn’t get a penny of subsidies.”

If only that were true – we’d have less work to do. Not to be outdone, Sen. Franken (D-MN) later chimed in:

“Senator Manchin asked why there weren’t subsidies for coal and uh, I’m guessing that I want to answer that. And I don’t know if it was a rhetorical question, but it seems coal is doing pretty well without subsidies.”

That’s Weekend Update material.

The coal industry has been pocketing subsidies since 1932. Taxpayers for Common Sense has identified numerous tax breaks and subsidies over the years to the coal industry. Our Green Scissors report released last July identified over $19 billion in potential taxpayer savings if the following coal subsidies were eliminated.

TCS President Ryan Alexander Statement:

“We stand ready to work with Sens. Manchin and Franken to make their subsidy free coal a reality. But before we can have an honest discussion about our energy policy and cutting spending, we all need to be using the same facts. Taxpayers spend billions supporting the coal industry every year through holes in the tax code and through loan guarantees for new coal plants. We need to stop giving tax breaks to the well-entrenched coal industry and protect taxpayer dollars.”

TCS Green Scissors 2010 List of Coal Subsidies:

Selected Coal Subsidies	Potential Savings 2011-2015 ($)
Loan Guarantees for Coal Power Generation with CCS and Industrial Gasification with CCS and Advanced Coal Gasification	8,000,000,000
Clean Air Coal Program	2,500,000,000
Clean Coal Power Initiative	1,800,000,000
FutureGen	1,073,000,000
Credit for Investment in Clean Coal Facilities	1,000,000,000
Carbon Sequestration Tax Credit	927,000,000
Domestic Manufacturing Deduction for Hard Minerals	856,000,000
World Bank Capital Increase	854,000,000
Expansion of Amortization for Certain Pollution Control Facilities	835,000,000
Air Quality Enhancement Program	500,000,000
Percentage Depletion Allowance	409,000,000
Capital Gains Treatment for Royalties from Coal	237,000,000
Expensing of Exploration and Development	202,000,000
Certain Income and Gains Relating to Industrial Source Carbon Dioxide Treated as Qualifying Income for Publicly Traded Partnerships	11,000,000
Electron Scrubbing Demonstration Project	5,000,000
Research and Development for Coal Mining Technologies	*
Build America Bonds (BAB)	9,891,000,000
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)	400,000,000
TOTAL (excluding ARPA-E or BAB)	19,209,000,000