Gas Prices

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

The direct subsidies still work out to $43 billion, or around 3% of this country's GDP. Solar and wind can only dream of getting that much annual funding.

IMF also states that the number globally (which BTW, includes indirect subsidies from environmental costs) as 6.8% globally.

Note that many developing nations directly subsidize energy, and are generally worse at carbon accounting or mitigation.

Also note that Canada is a large oil and gas exporter, which means that subsidies are more economically viable and important for Canada because it makes a profit from it.

Also note that if Canada lowers oil and gas production, that's just going to be taken up by those more carbon-intensive (per barrel) developing nations.
Or you get a Russia situation.

Either way, it's not great.

Obama let the fracking revolution happen for a reason- and it wasn't because he was some Republican or was a deep friend to the oil and gas industry.

Originally Posted by Changing City

It seems likely that the IMF study is overly conservative. According to the Canadian Medical Association, burning fossil fuels is responsible for annual health-related costs of CAD 53.5 billion in Canada. There are 90,000 abandoned oil wells, toxic tailing ponds and ageing pipelines that could cost up to CAD 260 billion to clean up. How much contribution has climate change made to the state of Canada's forests? What's the dollar value of the 5.8 million hectares of forest that's burned so far this year? Or the impact of all the additional carbon dioxide released?

Dunno man, what about the jobs and money from oil and gas?

These are externalities, not direct subsidies.



BTW, the IMF estimates also include 'environmental and social' costs, and adds them to its numbers by adding externalities not accounted for by things like carbon taxes.
https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/climate-change/energy-subsidies

So it already covers your concerns.