Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Fossil fuel subsidy measured in the Trillions of US dollars

theconversation.com
Instead of free market capitalism versus the climate, we have fossil fuel welfare versus the climate. And if we reinvested that fossil fuel welfare into social and ecological welfare, we could create a much more socially and ecologically prosperous future.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Kansas City, MO, $10 million a year for just downtown parking!

The other step is improving how we spend money to stimulate economic development. After the recession, national firms came to us and said we’ll invest in downtown, but in exchange we need real guarantees and asked us to subsidize parking-garage costs. [In the last 10 years] taxpayers spent about $100 million subsidizing parking garages for these companies.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/ask-an-expert-kansas-city-is-exploring-free-transit-should-seattle/ 

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Free parking. One of the biggest subsidies to oil, autos, and sprawl.

Free parking seems to be part of the normal order of our streets, like traffic lights and crosswalks. Although metering often exists near retail and during busy times, experts estimate that approximately 97% of the city’s curbside parking spaces are given away at no cost.
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-trade-free-parking-for-free-mass-transit-20191113-qdlrk64czrhyjejaxxsw7hky7y-story.html 

Thursday, October 17, 2019

US annual direct cost of potholes to drivers $3 billion

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), pothole damages to U.S. motorists total about $3 billion per year. On a per-pothole-incident basis, that works out to about $300 per driver.
https://www.pothole.info/2018/04/the-cost-of-car-damages-from-potholes/ 

Sunday, September 22, 2019

GM's Oshawa plant looking for more #autosprawlsubsidy

The proposal to preserve auto manufacturing in Oshawa calls for a federal investment of $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion to transform the existing facility into a plant that would produce electric vehicles for government agencies such as Canada Post.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/oshawa-gm-plant-ev-transformation-1.5291582 

Monday, July 22, 2019

US fossil fuel subsidy at $649 billion per year

A new International Monetary Fund (IMF) study shows that USD$5.2 trillion was spent globally on fossil fuel subsidies in 2017. The equivalent of over 6.5% of global GDP of that year, it also represented a half-trillion dollar increase since 2015 when China ($1.4 trillion), the United States ($649 billion) and Russia ($551 billion) were the largest subsidizers.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/06/15/united-states-spend-ten-times-more-on-fossil-fuel-subsidies-than-education/amp/? 

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Long list of costs and expenses of the subsidized auto system

 

CreditCredit Photo Richard Vogel/Associated Press
According to analysis by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the average American commuter spends 42 hours per year stuck in rush-hour traffic. In the Los Angeles area, the figure is nearly twice that, equivalent to more than three days. A 2015 Los Angeles Times pollfound that among residents of that city, traffic concerns exceed those pertaining to personal safety, finances or housing costs.

The total cost of traffic associated with lost time and wasted fuel exceeds $100 billion per year. As time slips away, idling vehicles add pollution, which has environmental and health consequences, including contributions to climate change. Long-term exposure to vehicle exhaust is associated with respiratory problems, especially in children.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/upshot/stuck-and-stressed-the-health-costs-of-traffic.html