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Taxpayers for Common Sense joined a number of environmental and consumer groups and a bipartisan slate of Representatives today in detailing billions in wasteful and harmful federal spending and subsidies. Green Scissors 2010 identifies more than $200 billion in wasteful government subsidies that are damaging to the environment and harmful to consumers.

By eliminating subsidies and programs that both harm the environment and waste taxpayer dollars, the federal government can protect natural resources while reducing the growth of government spending and making a significant dent in the national debt.  With taxpayers facing trillion dollar deficits adding to a $13.1 trillion debt, the need to end wasteful and environmentally harmful spending has never been greater.

• Ryan Alexander, President TCS Op-Ed in The Hill
• Steve Ellis, Vice President TCS Opening Statement
• Congressman Petri (WI-6) Opening Statement
• Congressman Blumenauer (OR-3) Statement and Press Release
• Congressman Castle (DE-1) Statement and Press Release

NPR Green Scissors Address:

• Green Scissors Preview (Audio)
• Green Scissors Report (Audio)

Official Press Release:

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For Immediate Release
July 22, 2010

Contact:
Steve Ellis, Taxpayers for Common Sense, steve@taxpayer.net, (202) 546-8500
Ben Schreiber, Friends of the Earth, bschreiber@foe.org, (202) 222-0752
Anna Aurilio, Environment America, asquared@environmentamerica.org, (202) 683-1250
Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen, tslocum@citizen.org, (202) 546-4996

Taxpayer, Environment, Consumer Coalition Takes “Green Scissors” to Federal Budget

Report suggests cuts to restore the nation’s fiscal and environmental health

Washington, DC — The Green Scissors campaign, a diverse coalition of taxpayer, environmental and consumer groups, today released Green Scissors 2010, a report highlighting government programs and subsidies that are wasteful to taxpayers, harmful to the environment and bad for consumers. Green Scissors 2010 targets four major areas for budget cuts: energy, agriculture and biofuels, infrastructure, and public lands. It notes several recent, substantial victories ending subsidies in the face of special interests’ undue influence in Washington.

“Staring down the barrel of record budget deficits, it is well past time for lawmakers tackle our nation’s fiscal challenges,” said Steve Ellis, Vice President of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “The billions of dollars of cuts detailed in this report provide lawmakers a veritable menu of policy options that will help our country’s bottom line while also helping the environment.”

“For far too long, the federal government has incentivized practices that destroy our environment,“ said Friends of the Earth Climate and Energy Tax Analyst Ben Schreiber. “This is particularly true with energy. In the fight to combat global warming, we cannot continue to subsidize the harmful practices that have forced us into this dire predicament.

“Powerful corporations and other special interests have too much influence in Washington,” said Tyson Slocum, Director of Energy at Public Citizen. “We need to reform a system that allows corporations to charge their pollution to taxpayers’ credit cards,” Slocum added.
“With record deficits, it is outrageous that both Congress and the administration continue to waste money on programs that poison our air, foul our water and destroy pristine public lands,” said Environment America Washington Office Director, Anna Aurilio. “It’s time to save taxpayer dollars and the environment,” she concluded.

Friends of the Earth launched the Green Scissors campaign fifteen years ago to identify and eliminate environmentally harmful, wasteful federal projects. Detailed sources for the 2010 report can be provided by the primary authors: Autumn Hanna of Taxpayers for Common Sense and Ben Schreiber of Friends of the Earth.

The report can be viewed at http://www.greenscissors.com.

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