Fossil fuels have unfair advantage over renewables on US capital markets

Since the 1980s, companies in the business of extracting carbon-based energy – oil and natural gas – have been able to take advantage of a special investment vehicle called a Master Limited Partnership, or MLP. As MLPs, they can raise money on public stock exchanges, allowing investors to take direct stakes in energy projects, but crucially they do not have to pay corporation tax like other publicly traded companies. In 2012, MLPs raised over $23 billion of new capital, most of which is thought to be for oil and shale gas projects.

VIEW FULL ARTICLE