Bill McKibben on Irrational Subsidies to the Oil Industry

Payola for the Most Profitable Corporations in HistoryBy Bill McKibben, TomDispatch 07 April 12

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175525/tomgram%3A_bill_mckibben%2C_how_you_subsidize_the_energy_giants_to_wreck_the_planet/

[excerpt] "By some estimates, getting rid of all the planet's fossil-fuel subsidies could get us halfway to ending the threat of climate change. Many of those subsidies, however, take the form of cheap, subsidized gas in petro-states, often with impoverished populations - as in Nigeria, where popular protests forced the government to back down on a decision to cut such subsidies earlier this year. In the U.S., though, they're simply straightforward presents to rich companies, gifts from the 99% to the 1%.

If due attention is to be paid, we have to figure out a language in which to talk about them that will make it clear just how loony our policy is....

....What possible reason is there for giving Exxon the odd billion in extra breaks? Year after year the company sets record for money-making - last year it managed to rake in a mere $41 billion in profit, just failing to break its own 2008 all-time mark of $45 billion...."