Today's bike ride included a stop at Groningen Airport Eelde to attend today's protest organised by @extinctionrebellionnl
While normal capitalist businesses are expected to turn a profit or they will go out of business, our local airport receives millions of euros in subsidy each year.
Not only do airlines benefit from not paying any tax at all on the huge quantities of fuel that they burn, but each passenger flying from the airport also benefits directly from this subsidy that we all pay. Fliers don't come even close to paying the full cost to society of their flights, let alone for the destruction that they're causing for future generations.
"According to the authors, a global economic model focused on wealth accumulation and profit, rather than true sustainability, is a major impediment to #decarbonization, conserving natural resources, and ensuring #SocialEquity. Therefore, the authors argue, governments should enforce radical, immediate cuts in #FossilFuel use, eliminate environmentally harmful #subsidies, and restrict trade that generates pollution or unsustainable consumption."
'Two southeastern Colorado ranch owners were recently sentenced to pay $6.6 million to resolve federal charges that they damaged or altered rain gauges in an effort to get paid for worsening drought conditions.
By preventing the rain gauges from accurately measuring precipitation, the men aimed to increase the amount of money they could receive from the federal government, according to court documents.'
"Chinese brands account for about half of all EVs sold globally."
#China has jumpstarted its #EV industry through a well-coordinated industrial policy that includes consumer #subsidies, manufacturing subsidies, and: "Widely accessible, government-subsidized charging stations using standardized plugs [that] reduce drivers’ costs and ease range anxiety."
"A new study has busted the decades-old myth that transit systems get less efficient when they receive more government subsidies — and proved that subsidies in fact do the opposite."
"This research revisits the perennial policy concern that operating subsidies hamper transit efficiency. We argue that the relationship between subsidies and efficiency can be better understood at the regional level and propose improved metrics related to transit efficiency. To begin, we focus on the impact of subsidies on transitsheds rather than transit operators to recast subsidy as a per resident metric, and we average vehicle load in the transitshed as our efficiency metric. Comparing these measures, we discover a surprising trend – transit efficiency is strongly and positively correlated with per resident operating subsidy."
"The idea is that the #subsidies should be targeted, more for the poor, and maybe some of the middle class, but certainly not the rich. They are the biggest consumers, using air conditioners, clothes dryers and swimming pools. So it’s totally unfair.
We have shifted away from that, and we’ve seen the clamour for #solar has increased tremendously, even for businesses now."
"Regulators begin hearings on how much customers should pay for Georgia nuclear reactors.
Commissioners began hearings Monday on the proposed deal, which would add $8.95 a month to a typical residential customer’s monthly bill, atop the $5.42 that Georgia Power is already collecting."