T-Boone can pick my taxpayer pocket any time if it helps wean the U.S. off its massive dependency on foreign oil (and all oil in general) and put the country on a more sustainable energy track. Don't kid yourself about those "subsidies" to non-petroleum energy sources. Production and distribution of oil products involves enormous subsidies, both direct and indirect. Do you not know about the billions in "research and development" subsidies paid to oil companies so they can drill in Alaska, the Middle East, the Gulf Coast, etc.? The petrol companies get huge subsidies, all the while making record billions in profits each year. Why do they need subsidies when they make so much in profits each year?
And don't forget about the indirect subsidies. Oil companies don't pay for the environmental harm caused by petroleum use (aka, "externalities"); we do, in terms of increased health care costs, premature deaths and illness, and lost productivity due to illness. If these substantial indirect subsidies were internalized (absorbed) by the oil companies, it would make petroleum production much less attractive on a dollar per BTU produced basis when compared to wind, solar, and other non-petroleum energy sources.
If you want to talk about subsidies, let's compare apples to apples. As it stands, alternative energy sources have an uphill battle against Big Oil precisely because the playing field is not level, with Big Oil paying much lower costs than it should be.
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