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ENVIRONMENT-US: Florida Hopes Energy Farm Will Be First of Many
By Mark Weisenmiller
TAMPA, Florida - If an experiment to plant sweet sorghum in rural Florida and convert it to fuel ethanol pans out, it could herald a fundamental change in how the U.S. and other countries create and use renewable bio-energy, researchers say.
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OBAMA: "Subsidising Big Oil Makes No Sense"
Bankole Thompson interviews BARACK OBAMA
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama sat down with IPS correspondent Bankole Thompson again on Thursday for a one-on-one interview in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where over 15,000 enthusiastic Obama supporters turned out to hear his message of change at downtown's Calder Plaza.
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U.S.: Great Place for the Oil Business
By Stephen Leahy
UXBRIDGE, Canada - Why do U.S. oil companies - some of the most profitable corporations on the planet - receive 20 to 40 billion dollars a year in subsidies from the U.S. government?
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AFGHANISTAN: Subsidised Fuel Trail Winds Back to Pakistan
By Anand Gopal*
KABUL - In a teeming petrol market on the outskirts of Kabul, black market traders sell fuel to everyone from individual customers to large business groups. Although much of this petrol comes from Iran or the Central Asian countries, a good amount also hails from Pakistan, where government subsidies have made the fuel much cheaper than in Afghanistan.
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PAKISTAN: Tax Payers Pay for Subsidised Fuel to Afghanistan
By Ashfaq Yusufzai*
PESHAWAR - Petrol pumps in Pakistan’s border regions do brisk business. Jerry cans of fuel are carried both clandestinely and openly across the porous frontier for sale in neighbouring Afghanistan.
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MALAYSIA: Murum Dam - Public Funds for Corporate Profit?
By Anil Netto*
PENANG, Malaysia - Who will foot the bill for the Murum resettlement? ''Is it Sarawak Energy or will it be passed on directly to the state government and hence the tax payer,'' asked one Sarawak-based activist, who declined to be identified.
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MALAYSIA: Power-Surplus Sarawak Funds Another New Dam
By Anil Netto*
PENANG, Malaysia - Preliminary work on a 3 billion ringgit (875 million dollar) dam in Murum in the north Borneo state of Sarawak has put the spotlight on a controversial scheme to build a string of public-funded dams to provide cheap electricity for energy-intensive industries to the state.
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AGRICULTURE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Investment, Information Keys To Productivity
By Busani Bafana
LILONGWE - Sustained investment in agriculture accompanied by effective and inclusive policies are key strategies for Southern Africa to address the global food crisis.
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DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Irrigation Promises to Increase Food Security
By Pilirani Semu-Banda
LILONGWE - Wyson Chandanga, a small-holder Malawian farmer from the northern district of Mzimba, does not care if the country receives enough rain this year. He is also not concerned on whether the rains come on time or not.
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DEVELOPMENT-SWAZILAND: Don't Blame Donor Dependency
By James Hall
MBABANE - What happens to a nation whose people depend on the largesse of international donor agencies for their existence, once support is withdrawn?
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TRADE: Old Talks Never Die
By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA - "History tells us that multilateral trade negotiations never die, and the current Doha Round is no exception," said economist Carlos Pérez del Castillo, Uruguay’s former permanent representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and chairman of the global body’s General Council in 2003 and 2004.
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CUBA: Foreign Investors Keen on Sugar Production
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA - Foreign direct investment in the sugar industry is acceptable to the Cuban government for producing alcohol and other derivatives, but it continues to be a topic that the authorities prefer not to talk about, at least in public, although experts regard it as desirable for the recovery of the industry.
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ECONOMY-US: Activists Target Corporate Chiefs' Tax Subsidies
By Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON - U.S. taxpayers shell out 20 billion dollars a year to pad business chiefs' earnings and to prop up the world's most lopsided corporate pay scales, say activists seeking to highlight inequality in this election year.
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Subsidies - Who Really Benefits? - RSS Why Do Subsidies Matter?
Subsidies -- transfers of public money to private interests -- have profound and long-lasting effects on the economy, the distribution of income in society, and the environment. Holding governments to account for how they allocate resources is important to citizens, not least because the bill goes to the taxpayers. At a global level, the impacts of subsidies are felt across borders, often most acutely in developing countries.

  Read our free newsletters:
Issue Twenty Three: Fossil Fuels
Issue Twenty Two: Fisheries Subsidies
Issue Twenty One: Indirect Subsidies
Issue Twenty: Government Bailouts
Issue Nineteen: Automobile Industry
Issue Eighteen: Oil Politics in U.S.
Issue Seventeen: Biofuels in China
Issue Sixteen: Transport Subsidies
Issue Fifteen: U.S. Economic Crisis
Issue Fourteen: Reforming Subsidies
Issue Thirteen: Oil and Climate Change
Issue Twelve: Nuclear Power
Issue Eleven: Fertiliser Subsidies
Issue Ten: Irrigation Subsidies
Issue Nine: Global Farm Trade
Issue Eight: Fisheries Subsidies - EU
Issue Seven: India's Development Race
Issue Six: Services Sector Subsidies
Issue Five: Energy Subsidies
Issue Four: Investment Incentives
Issue Three: WTO Farm Subsidy
Issue Two: Investigating Subsidies
Issue One: Biofuels
Subsidies Newsletter - Sign up for the free GSI-IPS monthly newsletter, addressed to journalists and experts.
Partnership with the
GSI
Global Subsidies Initiative
Understanding the complexity of subsidies -- the jargon, rhetoric and figures -- and the effects they have on people, the environment and economies is a challenge for journalists. IPS is an independent media partner of the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), in a collaborative effort to raise the capacity of journalists to investigate the hidden impacts of government subsidies. The GSI, a programme of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), is a research-driven organisation that aims to put a spotlight on subsidies and the ways they can undermine efforts to put the world on a path toward sustainable development. The International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) is another GSI media and communications partner.
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SUBSIDIES DRIVE US CORN ETHANOL BOOM DESPITE MAJOR DRAWBACKS
by Mark Sommer
The fuel source the United States has chosen to start replacing petroleum, corn-based ethanol, is expensive, inefficient, and both environmentally and economically destructive, writes Mark Sommer, who hosts the award-winning, internationally-syndicated radio programme, ''A World of Possibilities''.


BIOFUELS: NO SILVER BULLET AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS
by Vicente Paolo Yu III
While increasing the proportion of biofuels in the fuel mix for motor vehicles is a step in the right direction, it is not the ''silver bullet'' that will break the world's dependence on fossil fuels, writes Vicente Paolo Yu III, coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme at the South Centre.


BIOFUELS: MORE BENEFITS THAN JUST ENERGY
by Supachai Panitchpakdi
Many economic, social, and environmental goals could be fulfilled by increased production, use, and international trade of biofuels, writes Supachai Panitchpakdi Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).


AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA AND THE BIOFUEL REVOLUTION
by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Biofuels should be at the centre of a planetary strategy to preserve the environment and spur sustainable development, writes Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil.


BUSH ALLIANCE WITH BRAZIL FOR CONTROL OF WORLD BIOFUEL MARKET
by Leonardo Boff
Anyone who thinks that President Bush's current tour of Latin America, and especially to Brazil, was inspired by the urgent warnings in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is dead wrong, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian liberation theologian and member of the International Committee of the Earth Charter.


THE SINISTER NEW BIOFUEL ALLIANCE
by Joao Pedro Stedile
The Landless Movement of Brazil and the international organisation Via Campesina condemn the new initiative of President George W. Bush, who in his upcoming trip to Latin America hopes to seduce and co-opt the countries of the region into becoming major producers of biofuels for export to the United States, writes Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Landless Movement of Brazil (MST) and Via Campesina Brazil.