On the fiscal policy side, some have argued that concerns about renewables do not take into sufficient account the distorting effects of current subsidies and tax relief granted to conventional, particularly fossil, power sources.
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Some Democratic Congressmen from rural states are said to be refusing to agree to the bill unless it continues with the current subsidies for corn ethanol which are accused of pushing up the cost of food and wasting energy rather than saving it.
And personal accounts help eliminate the subsidies hidden in current unemployment-insurance schemes.
Unfortunately these arguments rarely acknowledge the need to contextualize the cost of administering these subsidies in the current regime of centralized government-dominated power generation and transmission.
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The government wants to scrap the current system of EU farm subsidies by taking the money out of food production to fund projects that sustain the rural environment.
As executives at auto makers expect the current strong appetite for the subsidies to use up the budget before autumn, car companies are bracing for a sales drop when the program comes to an end.
Second, our current system makes no connection between penalties and subsidies.
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Retailer subsidies would likely decline from the current level of about 8% of revenues, since the two companies would not be bidding against each other for retailer support.
At their current cost, electric vehicles are not competitive without significant government subsidies.
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The government would still manage coverage inside the new exchanges, but those not needing subsidies or wanting to be in the exchange would still have all of the current options.
The down side is that these current and future cost savings are only possible thanks to multimillion-dollar federal and state financial subsidies and incentives.
Biofuels -- Rising demand for food, which competes with biofuels for arable and pasture land, and a popular backlash against the subsidies they attract, will constrain the long-term potential for biofuels production using current technology.
The current growth of Chinese auto market will be stymied in 2011, due largely to the removal of subsidies on small-engine cars.
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