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RSS FeedMatters of Scale - Corporations on the Dole
How resource extraction subsidies transfer wealth - from public property to private profit, from natural capital to consumption, and from the many to the few.
Recoverable mineral value of the McCoy/Cove gold deposit in Nevada, which a Canadian company, Echo Bay Mines, proposes to mine | 1448600000 |
Amount the U.S. government will charge Echo Bay for the rights to take out and sell this gold, even though the land belongs to the U.S. public | 3305 |
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Recoverable mineral value of the Mount Emmons molybdenum deposit in Colorado, for which the Cyprus-Amax company has filed an application | 2999200000 |
Amount the U.S. government will charge Cyprus-Amax for the rights to extract and keep this wealth, even though the land belongs to the U.S. public | 1000 |
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Amount paid by the world's governments to subsidize their fishing industries in one year - creating higher incentives to deplete stocks and risk further extinctions | $54 billion |
Amount paid by the fishing industries themselves | $27 billion |
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Amount the U.S. government paid to manage publicly owned land used by cattle ranchers for grazing livestock in 1994 | $105 million |
Amount paid by ranchers for the use of this land, at a rate of $1.61 per month per cow | $29 million |
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Amount the U.S. government spent on building and maintaining roads through national forests, largely for the use of timber companies, in 1994 | 100000000 |
Amount of this cost paid by the timber companies | 0 |
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Amount spent by Germany to subsidize coal production in one year | $4.9 billion |
Market value of coal produced | $1.2 billion |
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Sources: Gold and modybdenum: Recoverable mineral value from corporate annual reports as compiled by the Mineral Policy Center, Washington, D.C.; Fishing: Peter Weber, Worldwatch Paper 120, Net Loss: Fish, Jobs, and the Marine Environment, 1994; Cattle and Forests: Common Cause, Fall 1995; Coal: Judy Dempsey, "Decision Time Looms for German Energy," Financial Times, February 9, 1995.
