fossil fuel subsidies

[auroraglacialis]

Although the recovery in the world economy since 2009 has been uneven, and future economic prospects remain uncertain, global primary energy demand rebounded by a remarkable 5% in 2010, pushing CO2 emissions to a new high. Subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption of fossil fuels jumped to over $400bn (£250.7bn)."

World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns | Environment | The Guardian

Looking at all these subsidies for energy stuff - no energy source seems to be excluded. There are subsidies for Solar and Wind obviously and people usually complain about them because they "distort the market", but then there are subsidies for nuclear power, too (especially in terms of R&D and waste storage but also in terms of insurance for accidents) and now that number for fossil fuels. I wonder what it would look like if all the real costs, including the needed insurances for disasters as well as the cleanup costs for things like nuclear accidents, large scale oil spills and toxic mining lakes would be part of the price of a particular energy source. I wonder which energy source would then be acceptable and what would be the price and how we would regard energy then. Probably as something precious that has to be conserved rather than wasted because the true costs are paid by the general public, increasinf government debt and unremediated environmental damage.