Fossil fuel developers typically pay far lower fees for using public lands than their wind and solar counterparts. For example, before production fees kicked in, as of 2021 oil and gas paid $1.50 to $2 per acre in rental fees each year — although the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act increased some of those rates. But for wind and solar, the BLM currently calculates rental fees according to market-rate land values, which can run up to tens of thousands of dollars per acre.
Simply removing subsidies for harmful products like fossil fuels seems like it could go a long way toward fixing our climate problems.
People get mad when gas is expensive because we’ve structured our lives around cheap transportation, but that doesn’t mean our society should continue to incentivize driving personal vehicles when it’s literally destroying the planet’s livability. The suburbs are propped up by subsidies; it really doesn’t make sense for people to drive an hour or more to get to work. The suburbs were initially subsidized by the WWII GI bill that helped white soldiers returning from the war buy houses far from Black people, and now are subsidized by cheap fuel.
No one wants to be the generation to live through the shit years of transition, but someone’s going to have to do it — if we don’t take it on now, we leave the problem worse for the next generation. If we accepted the need for our communities to change and let go of the unobtainable, exclusive 1950s American dream of a fiefdom for every (middle class) family, we could direct redevelopment of our communities to be denser and include local, walkable business districts: re-creating the vibrant small villages destroyed by car culture where all kids could be safe to play, instead of clinging to cul de sacs because they feel safe for our own kids.
(🙋♀️ Yes, I live in the suburbs and drive — walkability is only accessible to the wealthy in my region, where even a condo in downtown is over a million bucks. But I can be a YIMBY and advocate for affordable housing and density and road diets, and against gas subsidies and expanding roads.)
