Oil Subsidies Are Bad. Exporting Them Is Worse: Mark Gongloff

Giving fossil-fuel companies billions of dollars in tax breaks to pump the oil and gas heating up the planet is a terrible idea, but I guess you could argue it might at least create US jobs — unless you’re talking about the billions we give those companies to pump oil and gas overseas. That is truly self-destructive, offering none of the nationalist upside but all of the global downside.

Of the estimated $35 billion in subsidies the federal government shovels to Big Oil every year, more than $7.5 billion goes to encouraging the industry to produce fossil fuels abroad, according to a ...