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The Problem
Few Americans realize that the federal government spends or subsidizes billions of dollars on environmentally destructive activities such as paying corporate ranchers to destroy sensitive Western rangelands, providing tax breaks for coal mining and oil drilling, or promoting pesticide-intensive agriculture.
Mining, timber, grazing and nuclear industries alone spent millions of dollars to hire lobbyists to deal with Congress and the Administration during the last six years. In that time, their political action committees contributed $39.5 million to congressional candidates, yet paid zero in taxes for these activities.
Working with other top environmental groups, U.S. PIRG and the state PIRGs have selected the worst examples of anti-environmental programs funded or subsidized by the federal government. Through our Campaign To Cut Polluter Pork, we are working to eliminate each of these projects listed below from the federal budget process. These programs represent billions of dollars of potential budget savings. Yet in the current furor to balance the national budget, few politicians on Capitol Hill are even talking about these cuts, probably due to the fact that most of them received at least some of their election contributions from the involved industries. U.S. PIRG also is working to increase federal support for programs that protect the environment, including stronger enforcement of environmental laws, improved testing of toxics in drinking water and food, and research and development of renewable energy and energy-efficiency measures.
POLLUTING INDUSTRIES PROFIT FROM YOUR TAXES
- Mining - Every year, gold, silver and other mining companies (many of them foreign-owned) extract an estimated $3.6 billion of minerals from public lands while paying nothing to the federal treasury. Under the archaic Mining Law of 1872, mining companies can purchase these lands for $2.50 or $5.00 per acre. Last year, Interior Secretary Babbitt sold public land containing $10 billion worth of gold for less than $6,000. Adding insult to injury, taxpayers are often left footing the bill for expensive cleanup of the cyanide, arsenic and other wastes left behind.
- Nuclear - No commercial nuclear power plant has been built since 1973. As the nation struggles to deal with the thousands of tons of highly radioactive, lethal wastes generated from existing nuclear power plants, the nuclear industry receives an estimated $10.5 billion in subsidies from U.S. taxpayers. One particularly outrageous taxpayer handout is the Advanced Light Water Reactor program, which gives millions of dollars to General Electric and Westinghouse to develop new reactors for which there is no market in the United States.
- Agriculture - Sugar cane production has ravaged the Florida Everglades. Tobacco is the leading cause of premature death in the United States. Poor farming practices have polluted lakes, rivers and groudwater with pesticides and fertilizers. Yet agribusiness receives over $10 billion annually in taxpayer subsidies. One of the more outrageous handouts is the $110-million-a-year Market Promotion Program which pays large pesticide-intensive companies like Gallo Wines and Sunkist to advertise their products overseas.
- Coal - Coal is the number one cause of acid rain and a major contributor to global warming. Despite these environmental problems, the $28 billion-a-year coal industry receives an estimated $8 billion in annual taxpayer handouts. The federal government currently funds research and development of an extremely uneconomical technology to liquefy and gasify coal. It also funds the $2.2 billion so-called "Clean Coal" Technology Program, which has been criticized by the General Accounting Office for wasting taxpayer dollars.
- Ranching - Large companies like Anheuser-Busch and Union Oil Company as well as multimillionaire "wingtip cowboys" (including one who has permits to graze on public lands the size of Massachusetts) graze cattle on public lands for less than one-fifth of what they pay on private lands. Taxpayers lose over $52 million per year just in the management costs of the grazing program.
- Timber - The U.S. Forest Service subsidizes the timber industry's efforts to cut down our national forests. According to the General Accounting Office, taxpayers lost an estimated $995 million in below-cost timber sales from 1992-1994.
- Oil and Gas - Taxpayers are breathing polluted air from burning fossil fuels while the oil and gas industry receives an annual $550 million tax break from the federal government.
The Opposition
To ensure that they continue to receive such generous treatment from the federal government, polluting industries' Political Action Committees (PACs) contribute heavily to Congressional campaigns. For example:
- The American Mining Congress, a 260 member coalition of mining and mining-related industries, has lobbied heavily against reform of the 1872 Mining Law. From January 1989 through June 1995, American Mining Congress members and other mining industry PACs contributed over $21.5 million to Congressional campaigns. During this time, the mining industry extracted an estimated $26 billion worth of gold, silver and other minerals from public lands - a 1500-to-one return on their investment.
- Wielding their financial power, the timber industry spent $13.7 million from 1989-95 in Congressional campaign contributions.
- Between 1985 and 1992, nuclear energy corporations such as General Electric and Westinghouse contributed over $14 million to Congressional campaigns.
The Solution
The federal government must stop spending hard-earned taxpayer dollars on corporate welfare for polluting industries.
Over the past several years, PIRGs have helped cut some of these polluter pork programs, saving taxpayers over $20 billion, but much more remains to be cut.
We're ready to have the best year ever fighting polluter pork programs which waste tax dollars and hurt our environment. So far, we've helped increase our firepower by teaming up with powerful House Budget Committee Chair John Kasich (R-OH) and a host of conservative groups such as Citizens for a Sound Economy and National Taxpayers Union to form the Stop Corporate Welfare Coalition.
It is time to say "enough is enough". To eliminate these pork barrel programs, we need political momentum. Write or e-mail your concerns to Congress now and you can make a difference.
PIRG contact:
Anna Aurilio, U.S. PIRG Staff Scientist
218 D Street SE
Washington DC 20003
(202) 546-9707
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