I have no problem with raising lease rates for Federal land to market rates.
>>US gas is cheaper than elsewhere in the developed world because a) the US is self-sufficient in terms of supply
>Oh, I was unaware that the cheap gas phenomenon started in 2008 when we started approaching energy independence. Thanks Obama, I guess.
Oh, come now. It is a fact that, both historically and today, part (not all, but part) of the reason why US gas prices are lower than in the rest of the developed world is because the US is relatively self-sufficient. (And before you bring up Canada, Canada significantly lacks domestic refining capability, as well as ability to deliver its own gas to the eastern half of the country.)
2008 to now isn't the first time the US reached energy independence; the US had this status into the 1960s, and if it really needed to it could have always reached this, especially when including Canadian supply. The Gulf War was fought to maintain oil supply to Europe, not to the US.
>>b) US fuel taxes are less.
>You're getting dangerously close to agreeing with me on the subsidy point, but I know we won't agree on the politics of pricing externalities, so I'll just move on.
You and I both know that when people here and on Reddit claim that "the US subsidizes gas and that's why it's so cheap", 99% of the time it's meant to convey the claim "US gas companies get zillions in handouts from the government" (in the sort of bags with dollar signs that Mayor Quimby receives his bribes in), as opposed to "gas is taxed less in the US than elsewhere" (much less "US gas isn't appropriately pricing in externalities"), and 99% of the time that's the message that's taken away by the reader.
We indeed would not agree on the politics of pricing externalities (more precisely, whether such counts as "subsidies"). Your statement, however, implies that other countries' gax taxes are higher because they are more appropriately pricing said externalities. We both know that Canada or Belgium or Portugal's gax taxes are not higher than in the US because their governments have duly, nobly, and wisely calculated the impact of climate change and have set the tax rates accordingly. (Maybe Norway.) Said taxes are higher because their governments believe they are acceptable to the public, and are spent accordingly as part of general funds as opposed to being all (or even part) sent to a "global warming lockbox", or somesuch.
>> the paper does not claim that tax revenue would rise more than about $40 billion over about a decade. $4 billion a year is a pittance for a federal government that collected $4.9 trillion in 2022.
>It's an amazing logical fallacy to say "one number is smaller than another unrelated number, so the smaller number is unimportant," but even ignoring that, its still a subsidy and that's my entire point.
First, both the degree and kind matter. Unless you rush to correct everyone who says that public schools/toll-less highways/police services are "free" with "Ackshually, they aren't free", you also agree.
Second, EIA says (<https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=23&t=10>) that in 2021 135 billion gallons of gas were consumed in the US. We'll simplisticly say that every cent of of the $4 billion a year in "subsidies", which the EESI is presumably citing as a worst-case figure, can be assigned to gas. So each gallon is being "subsidized" by about $0.34. Not nothing (and, again, this is a worst-case figure), but relatively small versus the massive swing we saw in 2022 in the price per gallon (<https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/29/energy/oil-gas-prices-2022/in...>). More importantly, said amount is absolutely not the explanation for the difference in price per gallon/liter between the US and other developed countries, either.
