Last year was $8.2 billion less painful for 77 big fossil fuel companies, thanks to a tax bailout provision in a big pandemic stimulus bill.
The tax-law change did little, however, for nearly 60,000 workers those companies fired, leaving them stretching the $1,200 checks they received under the same law. Individuals were not eligible for the CARES Act loophole, which allows big polluters to reduce past taxes owed based on their recent yearly losses.
Energy experts are working to produce the world’s first public and complete database of fossil fuel reserves in the lead-up to this year’s UN climate summit.
The “Global Registry of Fossil Fuels” would fill a major gap in public knowledge, where only expensive or proprietary databases on fossil fuel reserves have existed before, or ones that are not detailed enough or are designed for industry use.
