Cost By Source
Further information: Cost of electricity by sourceThe following chart does not include the external costs of using fossil fuels.
| █ Conventional oil | █ Unconventional oil | █ Biofuels | █ Coal | █ Nuclear | █ Wind |
| Colored vertical lines indicate various historical oil prices. From left to right: | |||||
| — 1990s average | — January 2009 | — 1979 peak | — 2008 peak | ||
Price of oil per barrel (bbl) at which energy sources are competitive.
- Right end of bar is viability without subsidy.
- Left end of bar requires regulation or government subsidies.
- Wider bars indicate uncertainty.
Large energy subsidies are present in many countries (Barker et al., 2001:567-568). Currently governments subsidize fossil fuels by $557 billion per year. Economic theory indicates that the optimal policy would be to remove coal mining and burning subsidies and replace them with optimal taxes. Global studies indicate that even without introducing taxes, subsidy and trade barrier removal at a sectoral level would improve efficiency and reduce environmental damage. Removal of these subsidies would substantially reduce GHG emissions and stimulate economic growth.
Read more about this topic: Energy Sources
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