“The federal government supports the production and use of fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewable energy and encourages increased energy efficiency through provisions of law that reduce the amount of taxes paid by producers and consumers of energy from those fuels or technologies. Those tax preferences include special deductions, special tax rates, tax credits, and grants in lieu of tax credits. In 2011, the combined cost of reduced revenues and increased outlays from those tax preferences amounted to an estimated $20.5 billion. (See Table 1, which reports provisions that were estimated to cost at least $50 million. Major provisions, costing at least $500 million, are listed individually; those costing less than $500 million are included in the other category.) Energy producers also benefit from general tax preferences that are available to all firms, but those provisions are not included in the $20.5 billion. Energy-related tax preferences account for a small percentage of the cost of all federal tax preferences, which totals hundreds of billions of dollars per year.”
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