"Global Governments, Loath to Change, Are Wasting Oil With Subsidies"

"Venezuela has no shortage of problems, but one of the more curious is its cheap prices at the gas pump.

Drivers pay roughly the equivalent of 40 cents a gallon for regular gasoline, and that is after the government raised prices slightly in a minor adjustment in a vast, popular subsidy, which is helping to prop up the tottering government politically, while helping to bankrupt it economically. With little incentive to conserve fuel and the more they drive, Venezuelans release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which contribute to climate change.

Venezuela is hardly the only developing country wasting oil and natural gas with consumer subsidies. In many nations, transportation fuels are as cheap as soda. Electricity rates are so discounted in the Persian Gulf states that some residents do not bother to turn down their air-conditioners while away on vacation. By some estimates, the consumption subsidies may be responsible for more than 10 percent of total global emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas. They also contribute to traffic jams and air pollution in cities across the developing world."

Clifford Krauss reports for the New York Times October 18, 2016.