The Money Trail
The U.S. Department of Energy's coal, oil, gas, and civilian and military nuclear research and technology programs encourage the use of fuels that pollute the environment and contribute to global warming. They also waste taxpayer dollars. These programs thus fail to benefit the public at large.
However, these dirty energy programs do operate at the gain of private companies that conduct the research. Many of the energy companies that receive these subsidies are large multinational corporations. What's more, since much of the research funded by the programs examine ways of reducing the costs of energy production and environmental compliance, these companies already have a financial incentive to conduct this research, without receiving taxpayer handouts.
The persistence of federal dirty energy subsidies for private companies demonstrates the political clout that the beneficiaries of the programs wield in Congress. This political power has a money trail - it can be traced in no small part to generous campaign contributions from polluters to Congress.
The Money Trail