The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to Main Topic: Sanders-Omar Bill Would Repeal Big Oil ‘Welfare’ or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😜
Main Topic: Sanders-Omar Bill Would Repeal Big Oil ‘Welfare’
Dear Diary. For decades big oil corporations have been getting tax breaks and subsidies for their planet killing products. Now that Trump is in power both tax breaks and subsidies will continue to sour fossil fuel production and to line the pockets of oil and coal corporate presidents.
Looking forward to a better future without Trump, some progressive democrats are proposing that we should chuck millions of dollars’ worth of subsidies and tax breaks so that companies will transition faster to green energy production. Does this seem logical? You bet! But the planet does not operate on logic when confronted with greed. I applaud Senator Bernie Sander’s and Rep. Ilhan Omar’s proposals to start starving the fossil fuel bear, but when a wild animal that has a lot of teeth and claws gets cornered, watch out. I seriously doubt that their proposal will be adopted through 2028 until the democratic party regains both houses of Congress and the presidency. We will keep tabs on any news here, though.
Here are more details from Common Dreams:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-omar-polluter-subsidies-repeal
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks to a capacity crowd during an event at University of Wisconsin-Parkside on March 7, 2025 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Sanders-Omar Bill Would Repeal Big Oil ‘Welfare’ in Trump Budget Law
“We are done letting fossil fuel executives write the rules while our communities pay the price,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Jul 25, 2025
Two progressive lawmakers are teaming up to take down the subsidies for fossil fuel companies contained in the recently passed Republican budget law.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Friday introduced a bill that is an update of a 2012 Sanders bill to repeal the nearly $200 billion worth of federal subsidies and tax loopholes that they describe as “welfare” for oil and gas companies.
While the United States has long provided such subsidies to fossil fuel companies, Sanders and Omar noted that the GOP budget law recently signed by President Donald Trump adds roughly “$20 billion in new subsidies for coal, oil drilling, methane emissions, pipelines, and other false climate solutions.”
Among the budget law’s expenses singled out by the lawmakers are $1.48 billion for the production of metallurgical coal, up to $3 billion for power plant owners to transport carbon, a $447 million initiative aimed at helping fossil fuel companies avoid having to pay the corporate minimum tax, and $1.5 billion in tax breaks for methane-emitting polluters.
“Donald Trump has sold out the young people of America and future generations,” said Sanders. “Big Oil spent $450 million to elect Donald Trump and Republicans during the last election cycle. In return, the president has directed the full regulatory, legal, and financial weight of the federal government toward helping his fossil fuel executive friends get rich at the expense of a healthy and habitable planet for our kids and grandkids.”
Omar said that “we are done letting fossil fuel executives write the rules while our communities pay the price.”
“For decades, Big Oil has raked in billions in taxpayer handouts while destabilizing our climate,” she added. “The End Polluter Welfare Act will finally hold polluters accountable and eliminate these harmful subsidies once and for all. I’m proud to reintroduce this legislation with Sen. Sanders because our planet can’t wait, and neither can we.”
In addition to Omar and Sanders, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, as have more than 20 lawmakers in the House of Representatives. Hundreds of nonprofit advocacy organizations, including the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and Friends of the Earth U.S., have also endorsed the bill.
The GOP’s budget package tore up most of the renewable energy subsidies and initiatives that were passed by Democrats in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
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Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports
Here is More Climate News from Saturday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)