Green Energy Subsidies
U.S. Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer claims that a Republican bill to roll back some of the energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act will result in “higher electricity bills,” “hundreds of thousands of jobs erased,” and “China forever getting the better of America in the race for clean energy dominance.”
IN FACT, none of Schumer’s claims are true. Here are the receipts:
- The Inflation Reduction Act subsidizes “green energy” products that are far more costly than other options. Regardless of whether these costs are paid by consumers or taxpayers, they ultimately make America poorer and less competitive because they deliver less energy for every dollar spent.
- Per scholarly publications like the encyclopedia Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, the financial benefits of “green energy” subsidies “largely accrue to the owners of capital” because growth in “the green jobs sector” reduces the jobs “that would have been produced from fossil fuels,” and thus, “net job creation may be zero (or negative).”
- China dominates the global supply chains for green energy components not merely because of cheap labor but because they have lax environmental standards that tolerate the pollution these products create. Thus, China supplies 78% of the world’s solar cells, 80% of the world’s lithium-ion battery chemicals, and 73% of the world’s finished battery cells.
- Green energy policies have repeatedly empowered tyrannical regimes like China and Russia by making the world dependent on them. Thus, a shell company in Bermuda with deep ties to Vladimir Putin and Russian oil companies has donated tens of millions of dollars to the Sierra Club and other “green” advocacy groups.
