Pumped up prices.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Fossil fuels, fooled? - Government subsidies on fossil fuels - Brief article

EVEN AS world governments wring their hands over global warming caused by burning fossil fuels, those same governments simultaneously promote policies that subsidize the over-consumption of the same energy sources.

In a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Lucas W. Davis, a professor at UC-Berkeley's business school found that 24 countries grant calculable net subsidies for gas, and 35 for diesel. (By Davis' chosen measure, which looks for lower domestic consumer fuel prices than international spot prices, the U.S. is not among the offenders.) In 2012, Davis reports, there were $110 billion worth of such subsidies, divided about evenly...