Subsidyscope

Energy

Structure of the U.S. Energy Sector

Energy usage is integral to the U.S. economy and way of life. Americans use energy to heat and cool homes, fuel vehicles and power industrial processes, among many other things. In 2008 the United States consumed nearly 100 quadrillion Btu of energy from five key sources: petroleum (37 percent), natural gas (24 percent), coal (23 percent), nuclear electric power (9 percent) and renewable energy (7 percent).1

While energy consumption is intrinsic to the country's wellbeing, there are both large and small downsides to the nation's current energy usage and production patterns. These include: national security concerns related to foreign oil supply; global warming associated with a range of fossil fuels; water pollution from domestic oil spills and ethanol production; potential radiation releases from nuclear power facilities; and the disturbance of natural habitats resulting from hydroelectric dams, among many others.

Government funding of the energy sector supports a wide array of activities, including research and development, assistance to companies that engage in energy production and assistance to low-income citizens, as well as encouragement of greater energy efficiency and conservation. This support varies by energy type, but influences the entire fuel chain. These activities are also supported through a wide-variety of programs at several federal agencies including, but not limited to, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation.

Consistent with our methodology and the treatment of other economic sectors, Subsidyscope categorizes subsidies for the energy sector into three categories: direct expenditures (which consist of grants and contracts), tax expenditures and risk transfers. In the future, Subsidyscope also plans to provide more information on subsidies delivered through regulations, which we discuss on our regulatory page. Each link above provides a more in-depth analysis of each of these categories. For a summary of these activities and an overview of Subsidyscope's analyses in these areas, see our summary page.

The breadth of federal energy programs reflects the multiple goals the federal government simultaneously pursues in the energy sector. Sometimes these programs conflict with each other. For instance, the federal government promotes the development and use of domestic coal reserves by taxing royalties from coal deposits at a lower rate (see our tax expenditures page). This tax subsidy was worth $70 million in fiscal year 2009.2 However, burning coal, relative to other sources of energy, releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air,3 and the federal government also carries out a number of programs, such as the renewable fuel standard (see our regulatory page), that attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.4 Thus one energy program incidentally increases greenhouse gas emissions while another attempts to decrease them.

This overview provides a synopsis of the economic rationale for government intervention in the energy sector, followed by a brief summary of the size and scope of the sector. This Web page also briefly describes related issues relevant to subsidies in the sector, such as electricity production and water usage. Note that this discussion takes a broad look at energy in the United States and is not intended to explore in detail the myriad issues that exist in the sector. Rather, it is intended to serve as general context for examining federal spending on energy-related subsidies.

Economic Rationale for Government Intervention in the Energy Sector

From an economic perspective, there are various market failures that serve as a rationale for government intervention in markets. Two such problems account for the primary reasons the government gets involved in the energy sector: externalities and public goods. This is not an attempt to downplay the role that other factors inevitably play in the formulation of government policies, or to imply that the subsidies that currently exist are justified on economic grounds. Rather this section describes the theoretical economic justifications for intervention in the sector.

Externalities

When an activity of a person or corporate entity directly affects the wellbeing of another in a way that is not reflected in the activity's market price, that cost (or benefit) is called an externality. Externalities may be negative or positive. In the energy sector, there are various negative externalities, both large and small, such as air pollution from burning fossil fuels, environmental destruction from oil spills and adverse aesthetics from power lines and wind turbines. Economic theory argues for taxing products or services directly if they impose externalities in order to ensure that the price charged for the goods or services reflect their full cost to society, including the cost of the externality.5 Similarly, if there are positive externalities resulting from a particular good or activity, such as a hydroelectric dam providing flood control,6 the government could encourage such goods or activities through subsidies that make its price better reflect these benefits.7 As a result, these taxes and subsidies can lead to a more efficient allocation of resources.

Public Goods

A public good is a product or service that once one person is able to enjoy it, there is no cost for another person to enjoy it (it is nonrivalrous). Further, once public goods are enjoyed by one person, it is difficult or impossible to exclude others from doing so as well (making them nonexcludable). Public goods include things like firework displays, roads, parks, national defense and knowledge resulting from basic research. Such goods can be consumed collectively by all, but it is typically too expensive to exclude nonpaying users from enjoying them. The collective nature of public goods makes them at risk for being underprovided by the market; for example, you might not maintain a lighthouse if you know your neighbor will maintain it and you can benefit for free. In economics, this is called free riding. Thus, it may make sense to have the government provide and/or subsidize such goods.

An example of a public good in the energy sector is knowledge obtained from basic research. Research that could lead to the development of clean affordable energy supplies which benefit everyone, but require that someone pay upfront for such knowledge, may be undersupplied because companies that do not pay for the research can wait until the results are available and then use the information to develop their own product, a form of free riding. In order to correct this, the government may support research to encourage firms to make discoveries that will ultimately benefit everyone.

While these two market failures, externalities and public goods, cover a broad range of the rationale for intervening in the energy sector, they do not exhaust the types of market failures in the energy sector. Nor does the presentation of these two market failures intend to justify any particular federal policy choices or spending. Subsidyscope aims to present information and data on federal spending and subsidies, and does not take a position on their value.

Size, Scope and Composition of the Sector

The energy sector is instrumental to nearly every other sector in the economy; however, depending on how the sector is defined, it could be considered smaller than most other economic sectors. Based on one definition of the sector, in 2007, the energy sector's gross domestic product (GDP)—or total economic output—reached $526 billion, out of a total national GDP of $13.8 trillion that year.8

In 2008, the U.S. consumed 99.3 quadrillion Btu9 of total energy,10 nearly three times as much as in 1950 (34.6 quadrillion Btu) and more than double the amount consumed in 1960 (45.1 quadrillion Btu). On the other hand, it was a small increase over the amount consumed in 2000 (99 quadrillion Btu).11 Normalizing these trends on a per capita basis, the U.S. consumed about 227 million Btu per person in 1950. This consumption grew to more than 350 million Btu per person by 2000, and decreased to about 327 million Btu per person by 2008.12 These figures illustrate the gains in efficiency of the country's energy usage. For context, one Btu is "approximately equal to the energy released in the burning of a wood match … and one billion Btu equals all the electricity that 300 households consume in one month," according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).13

Figure 1 below illustrates the primary sources of U.S. energy consumption (petroleum, coal, natural gas, nuclear, renewable, etc.) and the sectors powered by those energy sources. Certain forms of primary energy are more applicable to various end uses. Electricity production, for example, consumed the largest share of the total primary energy supply in 2008.14 Petroleum is largely used to meet transportation needs, though this fuel also powers a portion of industrial and residential uses. The following sections provide a brief overview of the various types of primary energy sources used in the U.S., followed by an overview of the federal electric power production sector and the issue of water use in the energy sector.

Figure 1: U.S. Primary Energy Consumption by Source, 2008

U.S. Primary Energy Consumption by Sector, by Source, 2008

Source: Subsidyscope analysis of data from Energy Information Administration, "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Tables 1.3; 2.1b - 2.1f.

Note:

Figure 1 "illustrates the supply and demand of primary energy only; total energy used by the residential and commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors comprises the primary energy used by each sector plus that sector's share of all primary energy supplied to the electric power sector to generate the electricity that is subsequently used by the sector." EIA notes the numbers are "preliminary." Further, coal cokes net imports and net electricity imports are excluded from presentation in the chart, but make up 0.04 percent and 0.11 percent, respectively. Electric includes electricity-only and combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plants whose primary business is to sell electricity, or electricity and heat to the public. Industrial includes industrial CHP plants and industrial electricity-only plants. Residential and Commercial includes CHP and commercial electricity-only plants. For electric chart, imports comprise 0.3 percent of the total.

Crude Oil

More of the energy consumed in the U.S. comes from petroleum (37 percent in 2008) than from any other source.15 Energy related oil and petroleum products include gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil and propane. In 2008, the U.S. consumed 19.5 million barrels of petroleum per day,16 but produced only 6.7 million barrels per day,17 meaning that roughly 34 percent of the nation's petroleum needs were supplied from domestic sources. Seventy-one percent of the petroleum consumed was used in meeting transportation needs, 23 percent was used by the industrial sector, 5 percent was used by the residential and commercial sector, and about 1 percent was used for electricity.18 See Figure 1 for more on primary energy sources and their end uses.

U.S. petroleum use accounted for 23 percent of total worldwide consumption for 2008, with China and Japan following, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Within the U.S. that same year, California used about 11 percent of total U.S. consumption, with Texas at 10 percent and Florida at 6 percent.19

Some of the subsidies available to the oil, petroleum and natural gas industries (see the next section for a discussion of natural gas) include tax expenditures that Subsidyscope discusses here, such as the expensing of exploration and development for fuels, the ability for companies to deduct a percentage of the cost of drilling or mining for fuels and the temporary 50 percent expensing provision for equipment used in refining liquid fuels. These three subsidies combined resulted in an estimated revenue loss for the federal government of $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2009.20

Further, the oil and gas industry receives an implicit subsidy to produce oil and gas on federal lands through a regulatory subsidy called "royalty relief," or a reduction in the amount of royalties these companies must pay to the federal government in return for extracting its natural resources. As Subsidyscope explains in more detail here, royalty relief is a subsidy to oil and gas producers that is intended to promote domestic oil and gas production, thereby reducing oil and gas imports. Unfortunately, there is no overall estimate of the total subsidy provided by royalty relief, but government estimates for specific areas indicate it is in the billions of dollars every year. For instance, in 2008 the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated the cost of royalty relief for deep water areas in the Gulf of Mexico for the four years from 1996 to 2000 to be between $21 billion and $53 billion.21

Natural Gas

In 2008, natural gas supplied about 24 percent of total U.S. energy use, with 21.2 quadrillion Btu of dry natural gas produced in the U.S., and 23.8 quadrillion Btu consumed that same year.22 In 2008, the U.S. imported about 12.7 percent of natural gas it consumed.23 Natural gas was used evenly by the industrial sector and the residential and commercial sectors—both at about 34 percent each. Twenty-nine percent of the natural gas consumed was used by the electric power sector and three percent was used for transportation.24

U.S. production and consumption of natural gas has increased over the past few years (from 2006 to 2009), while imports have dropped (from 2007 to 2009).25 Natural gas is the main heating fuel for slightly more than half of the homes in the U.S., and is also used to fuel stoves, water heaters, clothes dryers and other household appliances.26

In addition to the subsidies for the oil, petroleum and natural gas industries highlighted in the previous section, an additional tax subsidy specific to the natural gas industry allows firms to accelerate the depreciation of their natural gas pipelines when calculating how much to write off for tax purposes. This resulted in an estimated revenue loss of $80 million to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) in fiscal year 2009.27

Coal

In 2008, nearly 1.2 billion short tons of coal were consumed in the U.S. Virtually all of this coal came from domestic mines.28 Roughly 91 percent of domestic coal resources were used to produce electricity in 2008, with most of the remaining balance used for industrial purposes.29 Despite its heavy use to produce electricity, it generates only about half of the electricity the nation consumes,30 and about a quarter of total U.S. primary energy consumption.31 The U.S. has exported about 5 percent of its coal, on average, over the past 10 years, and some plants in the U.S. import coal when it is cheaper than having it shipped from domestic mines.32

While coal is an inexpensive and abundant primary energy source for electricity, relative to other energy sources, when burned it has higher carbon dioxide emissions than oil and natural gas,33 and also emits air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury, which have been linked to health and environmental damage. Further, coal extraction is associated with other externalities such as occupational risks, negative impacts on ecosystems, and the adverse alteration of landscapes and scenic views in areas where it is mined.34

There are several specific tax subsidies to the coal industry. For example, the tax credit for investment in clean coal facilities resulted in an estimated loss to the Treasury of $180 million in fiscal year 2009, while the treatment of royalties from coal as capital gains income, rather than ordinary income, cost the Treasury an estimated $70 million that same year.35

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy36 includes biomass (wood and wood waste, municipal solid waste, landfill gas, biogas and ethanol or biodiesel), hydropower (water), geothermal, wind and solar energy. These sources of energy are replaced in nature over a relatively short time frame, whereas fossil energy replacement is very long compared to the human time scale. In 2008, renewable energy sources provided about 7 percent of total energy consumption in the U.S. (7.3 quadrillion Btu).37 About half of this renewable energy was used for electricity generation (51 percent), 28 percent was harnessed by the industrial sector, 11 percent was used for transportation purposes, and 10 percent was employed by the residential and commercial sectors.38

The largest source of renewable energy is biomass, which comprised 53 percent of renewable energy in 2008.39 Biomass includes ethanol, which is an alcohol fuel made from the sugars in various grains or other crops, such as corn, barley, sugar cane or rice.40 In the U.S., virtually all of the ethanol produced is used to make "E10" or "gasohol," a mixture of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline. Biodiesel is a biodegradable fuel made from vegetable oils, fats or greases—such as recycled restaurant grease.41 Because almost all biomass fuel resources rely on land and other inputs such as water and fertilizer, their environmental profiles vary widely depending on the feedstock and production systems used to grow them.

In the U.S., hydropower produces the most electricity of all renewable energy sources; it accounted for 6 percent of total U.S. electricity generation and 67 percent of electrical generation from renewables in 2008.42 That same year, wind machines generated about 1.3 percent of total U.S. electricity generation, or enough to power about 4.6 million households for the year.43 In 2008, U.S. geothermal power plants, located solely in 7 western states, produced 0.4 percent of total U.S. electricity generation.44

Nuclear

According to DOE, as of 2009, there were 104 commercial nuclear reactors operating at 65 power plants in 31 states, producing about 20 percent of U.S. electricity.45 In 2008, all of the nuclear electric power produced in the U.S. was used for producing electric power.46 Thirty-one countries have commercial nuclear reactors. The U.S. has the largest aggregate generating capacity in the world. The second highest producer, France, relies on nuclear electric power for 80 percent of its electricity.47

One advantage of nuclear power is that it generates very few, if any, carbon emissions.48 Yet this type of power does have serious problems regarding waste disposal and the risk of an accident that could result in the release of radioactive material. For a discussion of the Price Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act, which provides a subsidy to companies licensed to operate nuclear power plants, see Subsidyscope's risk transfers page.

Federal Electricity Programs

The previous section briefly discussed the primary sources of energy and some of the specific subsidies the U.S. government conveys to those industries. Electricity is an example of a secondary power source produced from the primary energy sources discussed above. Electricity is neither renewable nor non-renewable; rather the sources from which it originates can be either.49 As Figure 2 below illustrates, most of the electricity in the U.S. is generated from coal, followed by natural gas and nuclear power.50 While the federal government's subsidization of private electricity generators is captured in the subsidies provided to producers of primary energy sources (such as coal), the federal government also has several programs that directly support electricity production, transmission, distribution and consumption. For example, the government directly provides relatively low cost electricity in certain areas, provides loans and tax exemptions to some electricity producers and funds electricity-related research and development. These subsidies are discussed in more detail below.

Figure 2: U.S. Electric Power Sector Energy Consumption, by Primary Source, 2008

Source: Subsidyscope analysis of data from Energy Information Administration, "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Table 2.1f. p. 45.

Note:

Net electricity imports comprise 0.3 percent of the fuels consumed to produce electricity.

The federal government owns or implicitly backs several electricity-producing utilities, including the Federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs), which include the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the Western Area Power Administration, the Southwestern Power Administration, the Southeastern Power Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These utilities are statutorily obligated to provide below-market-cost power to their beneficiaries. In doing so, they provide electricity to state and local utilities or cooperatives which then sell the power at a reduced cost to residential or commercial customers.51

Among the most common government mechanisms to support electric utilities is providing access to capital with reduced interest rates. As the EIA explains, "[t]he benefits derive from the Federal utilities' ability to borrow directly from the Treasury, sell bonds to the public in the case of TVA, or assume payment of debt obligations of third parties in the case of BPA, at interest rates that reflect investors' perception that such obligations are guaranteed by the Federal government."52 The credit rating agencies recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that this perception improves the PMA's and TVA's creditworthiness.53

Additionally, publicly-owned utilities benefit from the ability to borrow at reduced interest rates through the issuance of tax-exempt debt. In some cases, they issue the debt themselves, as the TVA does. In other cases, state and municipal utilities may issue tax-exempt debt on behalf of third parties, such as to utilities for pollution control equipment (a tax expenditure that is listed on our tax subsidies page). In addition to these tax subsidies, electric cooperatives and publicly-owned utilities are tax-exempt and therefore receive an implicit subsidy.54 However, this subsidy is not calculated nor presented by the government, and therefore the tax exemption is not included in this analysis.55

The federal government also indirectly supports electricity through loans and loan guarantees made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) to rural electric cooperatives at low rates. Federal support of electricity loans and loan guarantees through the RUS programs totaled $21.9 billion from fiscal year 2002 to 2007.56 For more information on those programs, see Subsidyscope's page on risk transfers in the energy sector.

Further, much of the benefits of federal spending on research and development (R&D) in the energy sector accrue to both private and federal electricity generators. The GAO found that over the 5 year period from fiscal years 2002 to 2007, electricity-related R&D grew by 35 percent (from $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion).57 This includes funding for nuclear power (which received the most electricity-related R&D funding), fossil fuels and renewable programs.

Water

The previous sections focused on sources of energy. Another important element of the energy sector is that of water use for energy production and transportation. Water is a vital intermediate input to energy resource development in that it is used in extracting, refining, processing and transporting fuels. Understanding how water influences the energy sector can be important in understanding how the government may indirectly subsidize energy through water subsidies.

Water is a significant input to electric power generation. It is used directly, for example, to generate electricity at hydroelectric plants and indirectly at other electric generating facilities for cooling and emissions control. In many cases water is only temporarily used in the energy sector. Often, water is withdrawn from a source and, shortly thereafter, returned to that same source for further reuse. But in many cases, water is withdrawn and used in a way that either contaminates the water requiring further processing or disposal (such as coal mine tailings58) or otherwise removes water from further use from its original source (such as evaporation from a cooling tower or reservoir59).

Water is also a significant resource for energy transportation. By one estimate, almost 50 percent of the total tonnage moved through domestic waterways is coal and oil shipments which benefit from subsidized channel or port-deepening projects.60

To the extent water use is subsidized, the energy sector also benefits from these subsidies. However, Subsidyscope's analysis of the energy sector does not currently take water subsidies into account. First, there is a lack of data and quantification on federal spending and subsidies in the area of water for energy production and use. Secondly, spending on subsidy programs involving water used for energy is not classified by the federal government in a manner that allows for aggregation. These gaps in existing research as well as government recordkeeping point to an area in need of further research.

  1. Energy Information Administration (EIA). "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. 37. Department of Energy (DOE).
  2. Subsidyscope analysis of FY2009 data in: Office of Management and Budget (OMB). "Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2011." p. 209.
  3. Hong, B.D. and Slatick, E.R. "Carbon Dioxide Emission Factors for Coal." Energy Information Administration, Quarterly Report, January-April 1994. DOE/EIA. Washington, DC. August 1994. pp. 1-8; and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Volume 2: Energy, Chapter 1." Table 1.4. pp. 1.23-1.24.
  4. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "Transportation and Climate: Regulation and Standards." Last Updated: June 10, 2010.
  5. Metcalf, Gilbert. "Federal Tax Policy Towards Energy." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, No. W12568. Cambridge, MA. October 2006. p. 3.
  6. Congressional Budget Office (CBO). "Should the Federal Government Sell Electricity?" November 1997, Washington, DC. p. 15.
  7. Subsidyscope does not advocate for specific taxes or subsidies rather we provide these examples for context.
  8. Subsidyscope. "The Federal Financial Footprint in Six Sectors." 2010. Forthcoming.
  9. Btu is the abbreviation for British thermal unit; it is a precise measure of the heat content of fuels. It is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of liquid water by 1 degree Fahrenheit at the temperature that water has its greatest density (approximately 39 degrees Fahrenheit). See: EIA. "Apples, Oranges and Btu" Last updated: August 2008. Department of Energy.
  10. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. 9. DOE.
  11. Ibid.
  12. Population figures from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1950 population: U.S. Bureau of the Census. "Historical National Population Estimates: July 1, 1900 to July 1, 1999." June 2000. Washington, DC.; 2000 and 2008 populations: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Estimates Program. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2008." Washington, DC.
  13. EIA. "Apples, Oranges and Btu" Last updated: August 2008. DOE.
  14. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. v. DOE.
  15. EIA. "Oil: Crude and Petroleum Products Explained: Use of Oil." Last updated: March 1, 2010. DOE.
  16. Ibid.
  17. These totals include crude oil, natural gas liquid petroleum, and other oils. See: EIA, "Petroleum Navigator: Supply and Disposition." Release Date: June 29, 2009. DOE.
  18. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. v. DOE.
  19. EIA. "Oil: Crude and Petroleum Products Explained: Use of Oil." Last updated: March 1, 2010. DOE.
  20. Subsidyscope analysis of FY2009 data in: OMB. "Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2011." p. 209.
  21. Government Accountability Office (GAO). "Oil and Gas Royalties: The Federal System for Collecting Oil and Gas Revenues Needs Comprehensive Reassessment." September 2008. GPO: Washington, DC. p. 6.
  22. Subsidyscope analysis of EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." Table 1.2, 1.3. June 2009. Washington, DC. pp. 7, 9. DOE.
  23. Ibid., Table 6.1. p. 187. Calculation made based on net imports as a percentage of consumption.
  24. Ibid., p. v.
  25. EIA. "Natural Gas Navigator: Natural Gas Summary." Release Date: June 29, 1010. DOE.
  26. EIA. "Natural Gas Explained: Use of Natural Gas." Last Updated: March 11, 2010. DOE.
  27. Subsidyscope analysis of FY2009 data in OMB. "Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2011." p. 209.
  28. EIA. "Coal Explained: Coal Imports and Exports." Last Updated: February 19, 2010. DOE.
  29. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. v. DOE.
  30. Subsidyscope analysis of data from EIA: "Annual Energy Review 2008." Tables 8.4a. June 2009. Washington, DC. p. 239. DOE.
  31. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." Table 1.3. June 2009. Washington, DC. p. 9. DOE.
  32. EIA. "What is the role of coal in the United States?" Last Updated: February 25, 2010. DOE.
  33. Hong, B.D. and Slatick, E.R. "Carbon Dioxide Emission Factors for Coal." Energy Information Administration, Quarterly Report, January-April 1994. DOE/EIA. Washington, DC. August 1994. p. 1; and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Volume 2: Energy, Chapter 1." Table 1.4. pp. 1.23-1.24.
  34. EIA. "What is the role of coal in the United States?" Last Updated: February 25, 2010. DOE.
  35. Subsidyscope analysis of FY2009 data in OMB. "Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2011." p. 209.
  36. In "The Clean Energy Economy," The Pew Center on the States and the Pew Environment Group defines renewable energy as "renewable power from solar, wind, low-impact hydro, hydrogen fuel cells, marine and tidal, geothermal and small-scale biopower energy sources." The Pew Charitable Trusts. "The Clean Energy Economy." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. 12.
  37. EIA. "Renewable Energy Explained." Last Reviewed: July 16, 2009. DOE.
  38. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. v. DOE.
  39. EIA. "Renewable Energy Explained." Last Reviewed: July 16, 2009. DOE.
  40. EIA. "Biofuels: Ethanol and Biodiesel Explained." Last Reviewed: January 26, 2010. DOE.
  41. Ibid.
  42. EIA. "Hydropower Explained." Last Reviewed: February 19, 2010. DOE.
  43. EIA. "Wind Explained: Electricity Generation from Wind." Last Updated: February 19, 2010. DOE.
  44. EIA. "Geothermal Explained: Use of Geothermal Energy." Last Updated: March, 2, 2010. DOE.
  45. EIA. "What is the status of the U.S. nuclear industry?" Last Updated: December 14, 2009. DOE.
  46. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Washington, DC. p. v. DOE.
  47. EIA. "What is the status of the U.S. nuclear industry?" Last Updated: December 14, 2009. DOE.
  48. According to the EIA, "Nuclear power generation itself does not contribute to airborne emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse gas, although related activities such as the production of nuclear fuel for reactors do result in CO2 emissions." EIA. "What is the status of the U.S. nuclear industry?" Last Updated: December 14, 2009. DOE.
  49. EIA. "Electricity Explained." Last Reviewed: January 26, 2010. DOE.
  50. EIA. "Annual Energy Review 2008." June 2009. Table 2.1f. Washington, DC. p. 55. DOE.
  51. Ibid.
  52. Ibid.
  53. Ibid.
  54. Ibid., p. 57-58.
  55. The Treasury and the Joint Committee on Taxation do not estimate the tax exemption of electric cooperatives as a tax expenditure.
  56. GAO. "Federal Electricity Subsidies." October 2007. GAO-08-102, p. 5.
  57. Ibid., p. 2-3.
  58. Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources. "Coal Waste Impoundments: Risks, Responses, and Alternatives." 2002. p. 23.
  59. U.S. Geological Survey. "Thermoelectric-power water use." Last updated: March 30, 2010.
  60. Koplow, Doug. "Federal Fossil Fuel Subsidies." Annual Review of Energy and Environment. 2001. Vol. 26. p. 369.

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