While the leading Democratic candidates duke it out over their policy differences, a rare point of agreement is an end to tax policies they decry as “fossil fuel subsidies.” Top candidates such as Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders have all pledged an end to these so-called subsidies.

This sounds like a reasonable position: The federal government should not pick winners and losers in energy markets. But the policies which have been targeted as “fossil fuel subsidies,” however, aren’t subsidies at all. Rather, they’re about fair tax treatment for capital and investment, and the portions of the tax code in question benefit renewable energy industries as well.