We're constantly told that we can't afford to enact the bold climate solutions necessary to make the switch to 100 percent renewable energy. But, the people who say such things often leave out the hefty price that taxpayers are already paying to cover the cost of dirty fossil fuel energy.

In addition to the twenty-or-so billion dollars that oil and gas companies receive in direct subsidies from the government, they rake in billions more in bailouts in the form of tax write-offs, subsidized clean up costs, and mandated customer fees. Last week alone there were two glaring examples of fossil fuels company bailouts that stuck taxpayers with the bill, even though they never got a vote.

First, utility customers in Ohio learned that they would be stuck paying billions in fees to prop up aging coal and nuclear plants in their state.

Then, Gulf Coast residents learned that BP will be permitted to write off $15.3 billion dollars of the settlement resulting from the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill.

In both cases, the fossil fuel industry benefited from billions of dollars in subsidies on the front end, only to ask for another hand out when their failure to update plants or install appropriate safety mechanisms got them into trouble. And, they are both perfect examples of why people claim that oil and gas are still cheaper than clean energy.

If you never include the external costs or the numerous taxpayer-funded bailouts, it is easy to make fossil fuels appear cheaper than the alternative.

If oil and gas actually had to compete on a level playing field, no one would consider pollution, oil spills, and fracking earthquakes reasonable side effects of energy production.

If we want solar, wind, and other renewable sources to flourish in our nation, all we have to do is stop the massive subsidies that perpetuate our addiction to fossil fuels.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Who's Reading YOUR Emails? Besides You... (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

    

Thursday's Daily Stack  

Article: "How to watch tonight's Democratic debate" by Rebecca Shabad.

Article: "Sanders Over the Edge" by Paul Krugman, April 8, 2016.

Article: "Elizabeth Warren Has Basically Had It With Paul Krugman's Big Bank Nonsense" by Zach Carter.

Article: "US corporations have $1.4tn hidden in tax havens, claims Oxfam report" by Rob Davies.

Video: The Panama Papers: They're all in it together! - Jonathan Pie.

Article: "What to know about the federal court ruling on Wisconsin voter ID" by Jessie Opoien.

Article: "Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case Going to Trial" by Molly Willms.

Article: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 'right-to-work' law struck down" by Reuters.

Article: "GE CEO: Bernie Sanders says we're 'destroying the moral fabric' of America. He's wrong." by Jeffrey R. Immelt.

Article: "GE's CEO is wrong on Bernie Sanders" by Peter Knowlton, Andrew Dinkelaker and Eugene Elk.

Article: "Big government can save lives - so why do we fight over it?" by Colin Holtz.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Joins Verizon Workers On Picket Line" by Dave Jamieson.

Article: "After Taking Verizon Cash, Hillary Joins the Verizon Picket Line" by Jim Swift.

Article: "Sanders: 'No room' for language about 'corporate Democratic whores'" by Nick Gass.

Article: "Off-color: Hillary Clinton and NYC mayor spoof 'Colored People Time' joke, backlash ensues" by RT.

Article: "DC Madam: Former lawyer starts revealing names" by Maria Khan.

Article: "Shocking Claims: Pervy Ted Cruz Caught Cheating - With 5 Secret Mistresses!" by J.R. Taylor.

Book: The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry by William K. Black.

Quote: "It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being at the essence of getting the nominations for president or elected president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and Congress members. So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over'." - President Jimmy Carter on unlimited money in politics on the Thom Hartmann Program, 28 July 2015.

Article: "Greenland's Melt Season Started Nearly Two Months Early" by Brian Kahn.

Article: "Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 °C global warming could be dangerous " by James Hansen et al.

Article: "Oil Industry's Suppression of Climate Science Began in 1940s, Documents Reveal" by Nadia Prupis.

Article: "Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Wins TIME 100 Reader Poll" by TIME.

Book: "The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger" by Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett.

Article: "Why Inequality Matters" by My Fair London in association with The Equality Trust.

Site: Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Article: "Nayirah (testimony)" by Wikipedia.

Article: "New study says humans spread like an 'invasive species'" by Cheryl Santa Maria.

Law: "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act", 1970 (RICO).

Article: "Alternative minimum tax" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Palm Oil" by WWF.

TV: "Years of Living Dangerously".

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Luke Vargas 

Article: "Pakistani Spies May Have Funded 2009 Suicide Bombing Targeting CIA Outpost" by Elias Groll.

Article: "Brazil: President Rousseff says impeachment campaign is a 'coup'" by Luke Vargas.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman 

Article: "Quick Morning News - GOP leaders unload on Trump / Ryan's GOP House budget #fail? / Democrats' glee - April 14, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Quick Morning News - Ryan: Noooo wh run / Trump, Cruz, Kasich: Hammer! Slam! Blast! / NC bias law: Fake fix? - April 13, 2016" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Masters of Love" by Emily Esfahani Smith.

Book: The Science of Happily Ever After: What Really Matters in the Quest for Enduring Love by Ty Tashiro.

Book: Forgotten Hero by Joseph Lindley.

Site: Veterans For Peace.

Article: "Ayn Rand" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Chicago school of economics" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Here's one way the Clinton-Sanders brawl could end well" by Greg Sargent.

Article: "Kobach's Office Puts Out Spanish Voter Guide With Wrong Registration Deadline" by Caitlin MacNeal.

Tweet: "58 yo black man spent $200, 7 trips & visited 2 states trying to get voter ID in Wisconsin" by Ari Berman.

Event: April 2 2016 DC: "Democracy Spring".

Event: April 16-18 2016 DC: "Democracy Awakening".

Article: "Over 700 Arrests So Far as #DemocracySpring Shifts Focus to Labor Issues" by Sputnik.

Article: "Young Turks host Cenk Uygur kicked off American Airlines flight because captain wasn't 'comfortable' after he complained about four hour delay" by Alexandra Genova.

Video: Candidates challenged to visit public housing - Lawrence O'Donnell.

Speech: "State of the Union Message to Congress" by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, January 11, 1944.

Bible: "Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done." - Genesis 8:21.

Bible: "The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." - 2 Peter 3:10.

 

Do you have all the info you need to vote for @BernieSanders? Find it here.

Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

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Thom

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