Buried Out of Sight: Uncovering Pennsylvania's Hidden Fossil Fuel Subsidies
On Feb. 22, PennFuture and its partners released a new report showing the eye-popping depths that Pennsylvania goes to subsidize the fossil fuel industry. With the help of tax documents, news articles, and extensive research, PennFuture identified more than 50 ways that state and local governments subsidize fossil fuels.
In total, the analysis reveals that Pennsylvania provided $3.8 billion in fossil fuel subsidies in Fiscal Year 2019 by systematically disabling many of its standard tools for collecting tax revenues, allowing the industry to extract public resources at little to no charge, and awarding the industry grants and tax credits. Meanwhile, during the same time period, the industry imposed $11.1 billion in external costs on the state and its residents.
As the cost of fossil fuel subsidies to Pennsylvania taxpayers and residents continues to rise, PennFuture urges the Governor and the General Assembly to pursue the following:
- End Economic Reliance on Fossil Fuels
- Reduce Subsidies for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Shift the Public Health Burden of Shale Gas Development to the Industry
- Restore $2.0 Billion in Forgone Revenues
- Track and Reduce Fossil Fuel Subsidies
To read the report, please click here.