Help make hybrid cars more affordable
As of today, the $2000.00 tax credit for hybrid vehicles is going to be reduced to $500.00 next year, and phased out completely the following year. Instead, taxpayers are going to give billions to oil companies.
If you would be willing to add your name to a letter to your Senator demanding the continuation of tax credits for hybrids, send an an e-mail to soultek@soultek.com. Please note your state of residence. The Hybrid Car Blog is the blog of Soultek.com. Your privacy will always be respected and never shared without your explicit consent. Or, join the Hybrid Car Club and add "Tell my Senator" in the notes.
If you would be willing to add your name to a letter to your Senator demanding the continuation of tax credits for hybrids, send an an e-mail to soultek@soultek.com. Please note your state of residence. The Hybrid Car Blog is the blog of Soultek.com. Your privacy will always be respected and never shared without your explicit consent. Or, join the Hybrid Car Club and add "Tell my Senator" in the notes.
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
1:42 PM
7 Comments:
I've written my letters (example below) to come at this from the other angle. I worry that the "diesel" credit is just a handout to Detroit.
This shouldn't really be about diesel, hybrid, or any other named technology. The bottom line should be fuel efficiency.
If the goverment want's to encourage the sales of fuel efficient cars, then they should tax gas hogs and/or offer credits on all cars that meet a mileage goal.
Set the credit on a sliding scale above .. say 35 mpg, and hybrids (as well as some diesels) will benefit. That is not just fair, that is sensible.
A credit on any "hybrid" or "diesel" is too easily gamed by the manufacturers.
==== my letter ====
Subject: Diesel Tax Credit
I’m waiting to see if the proposed "diesel" tax credit will discriminate between small efficient diesels (like the 45 mpg Volkswagen TDIs) or extend to all diesels (like the 15 mpg Hummer Turbo Diesel Wagon). At this point I don’t think it looks good, just because this is always being reported as a “diesel” credit, and not a “small diesel” or “efficient diesel” credit.
If this credit goes to the oversized diesel pickups, and Hummers, that our Orange County neighbors so often use as fashion statements, I will be incensed.
From the article “Bush adds diesels to fuel-efficient vehicle tax-credit plan; future of legislation is fuzzy” by Harry Stoffer of Automotive News, Posted Date: 5/11/05:
[begin quote]
The Bush administration favors tax credits of as much as $4,000 for gasoline-electric hybrids and as much as $8,000 for fuel cell-powered vehicles, once they become available.
Bush added diesels to his plan during last week’s speech but did not propose a credit amount.
The House of Representatives approved its latest version of comprehensive energy legislation on April 22. It includes tax credits of as much as $3,500 for buyers of new diesels, but it offers no direct breaks for buyers of hybrid or fuel cell vehicles.
[end quote]
For the record, I have long considered myself a conservative and have been a lifelong Republican. I believe in the free market, and that business should be played hard, but fair. I don't believe lining up silly tax credits which benefit Detroit, while injuring average citizens is anything resembling “fair play.”
Sincerely
xxx xxxxxxx
Legislators seem much more adept at creating loopholes, rather than closing them.
Still, I disagree in a way. I think fuel efficiency and the tax credits have to be viewed as completely separate issues even though I know they are inextricably related.
I think the tax credits should be limited to advanced technologies. For example, the Silverado hybrid would not qualify because it doesn't achieve a big enough gain in fuel efficiency or emission's reductions.
I have no problem with your gas hog tax, it's just not on the table right now because Congress made tax credits and fuel efficiency standards separate issues - probably making it easier to accomplish little while securing a few of those famous loopholes.
I think you are almost there, when you eliminate the Silverado hybrid, but consider this:
A Honda Civic (HX) gets better mileage (36/44) than the Ford Escape Hybrid (36/31 two wheel drive, 33/29 four wheel drive)
If you give the Escape a tax credit, and not the Honda ... what exactly are you achieving?
IMO, it would just be playing favorites.
Both of those high mileage cars reduce emissions, both conserve energy, both improve balance of trade, both improve national security.
For an SUV, the Escape hybrid has made solid gains in fuel efficiency and even greater gains in reducing emissions. I guess I consider that a gain, albeit a weak one.
My hope is that this will increase hybrid sales, as well as efficiency via increased R&D, which should lead to better batteries and much greater fuel efficiency in just the next couple of years.
Still, I have no problem with your fuel efficiency standard. If a hybrid Escape doesn't achieve 35 mpg, then it should pay a gas-hog tax just like any other gas hog. I love the technology, but the vehicle as a whole, has no halo in my eyes.
Unfortunately, it is either tax credits or nothing. Fuel efficiency is already dead for this session.
Just hybrid tax credits are unfair. Not as unfair as just tax credits for oil companies, but still unfair. If everyone drove a standard Civic, most of our foreign-oil problems would disappear.
Still, I promote hybrid tax credits because I think the hybrid powertrain offers significant potential and a tangible bridge to oil responsibility that is achievable even for fat, dumb, and happy America.
Nonetheless, I second the motion for a fuel efficiency tax credit.
That sounds reasonable. Voices asking for "efficiency credits" and "hybrid credits" are all headed in the right direction.
FWIW, this is the paper that reconfirmed my suspicion of subsidies in general: link
That's funny and ironic. It was because of the Cato Institute that I built my argument around laissez-faire economics in my post 23 billion reasons to buy a hybrid car.
"It's still fair and reasonable to exempt pickups and vans used for farming and business, but slap petroleum-plundering behemoths that are far more sport than utility with a tax as conspicuous as their consumption." Fuel Economy: Tax the Guzzlers from the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
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