Subsidies for alternative energy a sound proposal - Citizens Voice

Traditional energy industries have not protested across the many decades that the Pennsylvania government has subsidized them.

Pennsylvania never charged the coal industry a penny for the vast damage it inflicted on the landscape, air and waterways â€" carte blanche to pollute worth untold billions of dollars.

According to Christina Simeone, deputy director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylania, the state government subsidizes fossil fuel industries at a cost of at least $2.9 billion a year.

The commonwealth has been more than welcoming to the natural gas industry. It has not imposed the same sort of extraction taxes that are part of the drill in other states. It has declined to include the value of gas holdings in local property tax assessments. It has authorized the largest tax exemptions in state history for a proposed ethane refinery, waived local zoning considerations, assisted in clearing pipeline routes, opened state forests and parks to drillers and helped to develop new markets for natural gas â€" all of which has been greeted as the norm rather than as extraordinary.

Industry advocates reserve chagrin and surprise for when the state government suggests extending a small part of those policies to alternative energy.

So when Gov. Tom Wolf proposed a $675 million economic development bond issue, including $225 million for alternative energy development, and to pay the debt with $55 million a year from Marcellus Shale extraction taxes, advocates of the traditional energy industries were dismayed.

“It is ironic that one industry is forced to subsidized its competition,” Kevin Sunday of the state Chamber of Business and Industry told Pennsylvania Independent. “At what point will they be able to compete on their own.”

Well, if the state government assessed fossil fuel producers for the pollution they generate, renewable energy would compete right now. But since state politicians will not do that, reasonable subsidies to make the state a major player in renewable energy are a reasonable course.

The state was headed in that direction until gas-happy former Gov. Tom Corbett derailed existing alternative energy programs.

Wolf’s proposal is a sound one for the economy, job creation, technological innovation and the environment. The Legislature should embrace it.