With all the public rage about out of control government spending, one area that doesn’t get a lot of public attention is the huge amounts of taxpayers dollars spent on corporate subsidies, whether it’s on the local, state or national level.

While politicians rage about government intrusion into such things as health care, little is probably known how government subsidizes companies that sell private health insurance. A company that sells private health insurance can take a government check as long as they promise to create new jobs.

The Huffington Post, recently reported, that while national health care reform has politicians and business raging about the the additional business expense it will create to have healthy employees, “The crime that reform is guilty of: Slashing corporate welfare.”

No wonder the rich rails about tax hikes. On 60 Minutes the other night, David Stockman, President Reagan’s former budget chief said that: “In 1985, the top 5% of the households – the wealthiest 5% – had net worth of $8 trillion – which is a lot. Today, after serial bubble after serial bubble, the top 5% have net worth of $40 trillion. The top 5% have gained more wealth than the whole human race had created prior to 1980.”

They may be against tax increases on their growing wealth, but they are open to government subsidies in the name of  job creation, when governments, local, state and national, are facing huge cuts to vital social services to help the growing legion of people living from paycheck to paycheck.  

Is this the hidden message of this year’s political races, Let use public treasure to create private wealth, not so much for the working class or the middle class, but for those 5 percent “who have gained more wealth than the whole human race had created prior to 1980.”

And it is not just the United States that subsidies rich corporations, such as the oil industry.

According to a report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canadian federal and provincial governments provided $2.84 billion to support oil production in 2008.

According to IISD, the report estimates the impact of existing subsidies over the next 10 years. The study forecasts the cost of subsidies to governments would double by 2020. The report estimates a 2 per cent rise in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and a projected rate of growth for the oil production industry.

 As a member of the G20, IISD said “Canada has recognized that efforts to deal with climate change, wasteful energy consumption, market distortions and barriers to clean energy investment are undermined by inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies and has pledged to phase out its inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies over the medium term.”

 IISD said that “The federal and provincial governments have already made progress in reducing the level of subsidies and incentives to the oil production industry, though a number of significant subsidies remain and new ones have emerged.”

 According to the study, IISD said the federal government’s share of subsidies in 2008 was $1.38 billion. Within the provincial governments, Alberta was estimated at $1.05 billion, Saskatchewan at $327 million and Newfoundland & Labrador at $83 million. A total of 63 subsidy programs were identified.

 ”In most cases, the subsidies were intended to increase exploration and development through a mix of tax breaks and royalty reductions,” according to IISD.

 Sen. Mike Johanns is urging the Department of State to expand its environmental analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline route.

On Monday, Johanns said he has sent a  letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noting a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is needed to examine alternative entry points into the United States. 

Johanns is asking the State Department to formally consider a route parallel to the existing Keystone pipeline and to examine the environmental implications of routing the pipeline through the Sandhills and Ogallala Aquifer.

 ”I, along with many Nebraskans, remain concerned that the health of the Ogallala Aquifer may be unnecessarily put at risk by the current route proposed for the Keystone XL pipeline,” said Johanns in the letter. “Conducting a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will increase the transparency of the environmental review process by providing a formal avenue to assess and respond to remaining concerns.” 

A copy of the letter to Sec. Clinton can be found here.

 On April 9, the State Department released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Nebraska has one of most precious commodities in the world – Ogallala Aquifer. While the world runs on fossil fuel (harder and more expensive to extract and taken a huge environmental toll on the planet) fresh water is fast becoming a scared resource, also.

The Ogallala Aquifer is a vast underground system that spans from South Dakota to Texas with smaller portions in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. It is one of the world’s largest aquifer systems, storing nearly as much water as Lake Erie and Lake Huron combined. Yet this seemingly limitless water supply, a key component supporting the Great Plains’ bountiful agriculture production, is shrinking, according to researchers at Michigan State University, who are helping shape the future of the High Plains’ water supply.

The economy of Nebraska literally depends on the resources of the Ogallala Aquifer. Conservation and improving technology in the form of water saving applications and new crop hybrids is helping Nebraska use that resource more efficiently and at the same time add value to the state’s economy.

It makes sense that people are concern about an oil pipeline going across the most precious natural resource Nebraska has to offer.

The National Science Foundation has awarded MSU $1.2 million to help shape a course to better manage this important natural resource. The multidisciplinary team of researchers, led by hydrogeologist David Hyndman, will use the four-year grant to develop a sustainability plan based on economic, sociological and geographic issues affecting the aquifer.

“For more than 80 years, the Ogallala Aquifer has been used for irrigation, and the withdrawals far exceed its ability to replenish itself,” said Hyndman, who worked with the Kansas Geological Survey on this project. “We are on an unsustainable course and must make difficult changes if we are to keep using some of the best agricultural land in the country.”

Researchers will review decades of scientific data. They also will study the interactions between the region’s landscape, atmosphere and socioeconomic systems and link this data with climate, hydrology, vegetation and economic models.

The end result will produce predictions and impact assessments covering a range of potential solutions. Community and government leaders will be able to implement the team’s forecasts to adjust land management policies and to make strides toward sustainable water-use practices.

“Navigating a patchwork of state laws, regulations and economics means any change will require complex solutions,” Hyndman said. “And since scientific solutions don’t exist in a vacuum, our plan will also address social and economic variables.”

According to Paul Blackburn, staff attorney for Plains Justice, which is located in Vermillion, on Monday, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced that it intends to conduct a rulemaking to revise nationwide pipeline safety standards. 

Specifically, he said, PHMSA issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking public and industry comment on a number of safety issues (full Federal Register notice and link below).  Persons interested in submitting written comments must do so by January 18, 2011.

Blackburn said a rash of recent fatal natural gas pipeline explosions and major oil pipeline spills have focused attention on the federal government’s failure to adequately protect citizens and the environment from the risks posed by high-pressure oil and gas pipelines.  In response to calls for reform from citizens and elected officials, he said PHMSA has proposed to regulate more miles of pipelines and to strengthen safety standards for the pipelines it already regulates.  

 Blackburn said PHMSA seeks comment on whether additional miles of pipeline in rural areas should be subject to the more stringent pipeline inspection standards used in populated areas. 

It also seeks comment on:

 *whether to adopt standards for leak detections systems from natural gas and oil pipelines;

*how long pipeline companies should have to fix at-risk pipelines;

*whether there is a greater need for additional emergency valves; and

*whether to establish standards to prevent pipeline stress crack corrosion.

 However, since this is an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, Blackburn concerned citizens may raise other safety issues for consideration by PHMSA. 

 He said this rulemaking represents a major opportunity for the public to engage in and improve pipeline safety. 

“The pipeline industry has watered down too many safety requirements, placing concern for their bottom lines ahead of human lives and environmental destruction,” he said.  “We need to tip the scales back toward greater protection so that citizens who live and work near dangerous pipelines don’t pay with their lives and property.”

 PHMSA is seeking comment on a limited set of issues (see below).  However, since this is an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, comments could identify additional pipeline safety issues that the public believes are important. 

 For more information:  http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-26006.htm