Fracking subsidies

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This article is part of the FrackSwarm coverage of fracking.
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Subsidies are forms of financial assistance paid by federal taxpayers to an industry or business. Fracking subsidies include tax breaks, government funding into research, lost government revenue such as discounted drilling fees, and federally-subsidized external costs, such as health care expenses and environmental clean-up due to negative and harmful effects.

Federal subsidies

Congress passed a large tax break in 1980 specifically to encourage unconventional natural gas drilling, with the the federal tax credit for drillers amounting to $10 billion between 1980 and 2002, according to the AP. The US Department of Energy also invested about $137 million in gas research over three decades.

Reports

• The Costs of Fracking: The Price Tag of Dirty Drilling’s Environmental Damage, Environment Texas, Fall 2012.
• In the Shadow of the Marcellus Boom, PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, 2012.
• The Costs of Fracking, Environment America Research & Policy Center, September 2012.
• Do Tax Subsidies Influence Domestic Oil Production? Geology, Technology, and Price Drive Industry; By Comparison Production and Drilling Tax Incentives Have Little Impact, Headwater Economics, May 2012 Report.

Related SourceWatch articles

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