Subsidies

Southern California's first major seawater desalination plant moved forward Tuesday when it won public subsidies that could eventually amount to $350 million. Years in the planning, the private San Diego County venture would be capable of producing enough water to supply about 100,000 homes. The Carlsbad project is the furthest along of a host of desalination plants under consideration on the California coast. Backers said Tuesday's vote by the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was critical to getting private financing, the plant's next hurdle.

Re "Airbusted," editorial, Oct. 12 Airbus is subsidized to build high-technology aircraft, which provides manufacturing and engineering jobs for Europeans. We subsidize tobacco farmers. Don't complain too much about government subsidies; if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have much aerospace work in California. Don't kid yourself: Government contracts are subsidies by a different name. PETE ALBERINI La Mirada

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois proposed cutting government subsidies to private insurance companies under Medicare by $150 billion over the next decade. Campaigning in Des Moines, Obama said the money could be used to strengthen the Medicare program overall, including a reduction in the prices seniors pay for prescription drug prices. "We don't do that because we are not setting the agenda in Washington -- insurance companies and drug companies are.

When Mexico and the United States were entering a landmark free trade agreement 16 years ago, one thing was clear: Mexican farmers would initially find it difficult to compete with heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural products. The solution: Mexico created a special fund to dole out cash to the poorest and smallest farmers. Somewhere along the way, something went wrong. Today, the fund -- far from helping the neediest -- is providing large financial subsidies to the families of notorious drug traffickers and several senior government officials, including the agriculture minister.

The European Union on Thursday demanded that Washington explain more clearly how it subsidizes Boeing Co. and warned it would counter any U.S. challenge targeting EU rival Airbus before the World Trade Organization. After 4 1/2 hours of negotiations on the transatlantic dispute between the world's biggest aircraft makers, no clear progress was made beyond identifying stumbling blocks and a promise to keep contacts going in the weeks ahead, officials said. U.S.

The World Trade Organization ruled Friday that $3 billion in U.S. cotton subsidies violated trade rules, upholding a preliminary decision in favor of Brazil from earlier this year, both governments said. The Bush team said it planned to appeal the ruling in the first-ever trade case targeting domestic farm payments. "U.S. farm programs were designed to be and are fully consistent with WTO rules," said Richard Mills, a spokesman for the U.S. trade representative.

The United States has failed to scrap a series of illegal subsidies paid to American cotton growers, the World Trade Organization declared Tuesday, opening the door to Brazilian trade sanctions worth billions of dollars. The formal release of the ruling is a major victory for Brazil's cotton industry and for West African countries that claim to have been harmed by the U.S. payments. "The United States has failed to comply," the three-member WTO compliance panel said.

Re "Amtrak's Future Remains Uncertain," June 25: As one who prefers train travel (or did in times past) and has not flown in many years (yes, I'm one of those), still, I say, unplug the endlessly futile Amtrak subsidies and let the free market take a turn. Or have we lost all faith in the private sector? At best, Amtrak is miserably mediocre. And yes, private industry will have to work with government assistance for new, safer and faster tracks--such as the projected high-speed line between Northern and Southern California.

Lis Sines of Hermosa Beach loves watching her electric meter run backward. When that happens, she knows that the 20 solar panels on her roof are producing more power than she needs to run her 3,800-square-foot home. The excess electricity flows to the electric company's grid, and she gets its full retail value credited to her utility bill. Sines' electric bill has plunged since she and her husband, William, installed a photovoltaic system on their roof three months ago.

Millions of unemployed Americans face the prospect of a huge increase in health insurance costs, thanks to the looming expiration of a government subsidy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February, launched a temporary government program to subsidize the often crippling cost of buying health insurance through a former employer's plan after a layoff. However, the so-called COBRA subsidy was designed to last no more than nine months for each person who was unemployed.