This decades-old
"subsidized energy" propaganda bullshit that republicans keep repeating in service to their carbon-based energy benefactors to attack alternative energy programs because they know their base, easily fooled imbeciles like Randy, will believe it, gets so old.
The government subsidizes all sorts of different types of co.s, especially, but not limited to, when the co.s are just starting out, and involve new ideas and technologies, or vital public services.
While many industries receive government subsidies, three of the biggest beneficiaries are energy, agriculture, and transportation.
The government gives grants to companies developing either renewable or nonrenewable energy sources, issues bonds for certain power facilities it owns and also imposes tariffs on certain biofuels.
Agriculture is subsidized through cash payments and essentially non-repayable loans to farmers; also, the USDA makes insurance against the risk of inclement weather and pests available at affordable rates.
Transportation companies are given cash payments by the government, funding for infrastructure building, such as airport and railway construction, and tax incentives...
For "literally" decades, there was virtually no step in the generation of commercial nuclear power, from procurement of the rights to mine the uranium, to the procurement of the land to build the power plant, to the construction of the power plant, to the operation of the power plant, to the disposal of the waste from the generation of the power, that wasn't subsidized or the liability wasn't mitigated by the federal government. None.
According to this summary by the GAO, General Accounting Office, as of 1979,
federal subsidies to the nuclear power industry "cost the taxpayer an estimated $12.1 billion since 1950".
The full cost of nuclear-generated electricity includes the electric utilities' costs, which are passed on to the consumer, and the costs borne by the federal government, which would generally be financed through tax revenues. As of January 31, 1979, 70 nuclear power plants were licensed to operate in the United States. These plants, having a total capacity of about 50,000 megawatts, provided about 13 percent of the nation's electricity. An additional 126 power plants are either under construction or planned. The large financial risks involved with developing commercial nuclear power required federal participation and cooperation with industry. The government's objective was to eventually transfer all federally-developed reactor and fuel cycle technology to a self-sustaining private industry. Meeting this objective has cost the taxpayer an estimated $12.1 billion since 1950. The federal government's major support to the commercial nuclear industry has been in the following areas: (1) nuclear research, development, and demonstration; (2) nuclear regulation to protect the public's health and safety; (3) enrichment of uranium to make it usable in commercial nuclear power plants; (4) stimulation of domestic uranium mining; and (5) indemnification of power plant owners and others in the industry against nuclear accidents. A large nuclear reactor research, development, and demonstration program for fiscal years (FY) 1950 through 1978 has cost an estimated $8.6 billion and may total about $1.1 billion higher. The regulatory function has cost $1.2 billion from FY 1960 through 1978. The costs and apparent subsidies for uranium enrichment totalled $1.2 billion through FY 1978. Federal subsidies in the mining and indemnification areas have not fully been quantified. Estimates show that the average cost of nuclear-generated electricity was 1.46 cents per kilowatt-hour in 1976, 1.45 cents in 1977, and 1.5 cents in 1978. Two future areas of increased costs will be waste management and decommissioning, but the actual procedures and costs for these are not yet known.
