While communities face rising energy bills, climate disasters, unaffordable healthcare and shrinking public budgets, oil and gas corporations are thriving — propped up by tens of billions in federal subsidies.
How much public money are they receiving?
That depends on how you count.
Conservative estimates of direct federal subsidies — including tax breaks, discounted leasing rates, royalty reductions, and industry-specific deductions — place fossil fuel support at roughly $30–35 billion per year, a sharp increase from prior years after additional subsidies and favorable provisions were expanded in 2025
But broader analyses that include state and local incentives, indirect supports, and systemic advantages put the number far higher — often cited around $80 billion annually or more.
And if you include the true societal costs — public health impacts, climate damage, environmental cleanup, and military expenditures tied to securing global oil supply — economists estimate the effective public cost climbs into the hundreds of billions per year.
However you calculate it, the direction is clear:
Public wealth continues flowing into some of the most profitable corporations on Earth.
Subsidies by Design
Oil and gas subsidies are rarely a single line item in the federal budget. They are embedded in:
- Special tax deductions for drilling and exploration
- Accelerated depreciation rules
- Below-market royalty rates for public land extraction
- Federal leasing systems that undervalue public resources
- Regulatory and infrastructure advantages
These mechanisms quietly transfer public resources into private corporate balance sheets.
And they persist regardless of which party controls Washington.
That is not coincidence.
It is structure.
The Constitutional Engine Behind the Subsidies
Under Supreme Court doctrines built over more than a century — and dramatically expanded in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission — corporations possess constitutional rights to spend unlimited money influencing elections.
Oil and gas companies don’t just receive subsidies.
They fund the campaigns of the lawmakers who write subsidy laws.
They finance Super PACs.
They deploy armies of lobbyists.
They shape regulatory agencies.
They draft legislative language.
And because money is treated as protected speech, this influence is constitutionally protected.
This is not government failure.
It is corporate power functioning exactly as the Constitution currently allows.
Climate Crisis, Corporate Rewards
At the same time fossil fuel subsidies remain entrenched:
- Communities shoulder the costs of climate disasters
- Insurance premiums skyrocket or coverage disappears
- Public health systems strain
- Infrastructure budgets shrink
- Healthcare remains unaffordable
Yet the corporations driving much of this instability continue receiving tens of billions in public support.
That’s corporate rule.
Reform Around the Edges Won’t Fix It
You cannot regulate away structural corruption while corporations retain constitutional political rights.
As long as corporate entities can constitutionally purchase influence, public policy will reflect concentrated wealth — not democratic will.
That’s why Move to Amend supports the We the People Amendment (H.J. Res 54)— a constitutional amendment that would:
- Clarify that constitutional rights belong to natural persons only
- End the doctrine of corporate constitutional rights
- Allow Congress and the states to regulate political spending
Without structural reform, fossil fuel subsidies — whether $35 billion or $80 billion — will remain baked into our political economy.
This Is About Democracy
When public resources are systematically redirected to powerful industries while ordinary people shoulder the costs, democracy bends toward wealth.
And when corporations can constitutionally purchase influence over lawmakers, democracy doesn’t just bend.
It breaks.
We the People are supposed to govern.
But until we end corporate constitutional rights and money as speech, public policy will continue to reflect corporate priorities — including billions in fossil fuel subsidies.
It’s time to fix the root cause.
👉 Learn more about the We the People Amendment
👉 Organize in your state
👉 Demand a Constitution that serves people — not corporations
Move to Amend National Team
https://www.movetoamend.org/
