Source: Environmental Law Institute (.pdf)

Last night while heading home from work I heard on the radio that America’s biggest company Exxon Mobil’s 4th quarter profits were down 23% to a measly $6 billion. Before you start feeling too bad for them remember that in 2008 when oil prices rose to $100 barrel, Exxon Mobil became the world’s most profitable corporation with earnings over $45 billion.

What’s amazing to me is that despite these incredible profits, we continue to subsidize these hugely profitable and highly polluting companies.

The graph above makes is pretty clear that part of the transition from carbon-based fossil fuels to renewables will require that we stop subsidizing the most profitable and polluting companies and move that support to renewable energy sector.