Still no new hybrid vehicle tax credits: Let's take action
Give them creditCongress has passed CAFE. By 2020 foreign oil dependency will end, significant reductions in global warming will be achieved, and all Americans will drive in any vehicle and achieve at least 35 mpg, while saving 100s of dollars in gasoline costs per year.
Now will reality please stand up?
It's time to put the power in the hands of the people. Tax credits for hybrid cars, clean diesel and bio-diesel conversion kits give the people the power to make smarter, clean and greener consumer purchases, while rewarding the companies making cleaner and greener energy and products. Power to the people, not the corporations! Join the Revolution! Read more.
Labels: CAFE, Congress, Foreign Oil Dependency, hybrid tax credits, Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:55 AM
3 Comments:
Full Story
Congress has passed CAFE. By 2020 foreign oil dependency will end, significant reductions in global warming will be achieved, and all Americans will drive in any vehicle and achieve at least 35 mpg, while saving 100s of dollars in gasoline costs per year.
Now will reality please stand up?
While it was easy for Congress and consumers to scapegoat foreign oil dependency, global warming and high gas prices to automakers, whom do deserve a significant amount of blame, Congress and consumers deserve as much blame.
For instance, if Congress simply asked Americans to pay for the real cost of gasoline, such as the costs of securing oil from the Persian Gulf (non-war costs), at the pump instead of as hidden taxes, the price of gasoline over the last few decades would have easily been a few dollars more expensive per gallon. That alone would have had a monumental impact on foreign oil dependency by forcing consumers to make more fuel efficient purchases.
Of course making consumers responsible for reality might mean losing elections and, as politicians regularly prove, elections are more important than reality.
Thus, we're left with 35 mpg by 2020, which actually means about 26 mpg when the faulty testing of the EPA is added into the equation. Then factor in the different standards for cars and trucks, the ethanol credit, and other loopholes that I'm sure are left to be found and CAFE seems greatly unimpressive.
Inevitably, one can only wonder, will CAFE really lead to significant change, especially when energy consumption in America is predicted to increase significantly in the next few decades?
That's why it seems more tax credits for hybrid cars, for clean diesel, for bio-diesel conversion kits are so important. Such credits reward consumers for taking action TODAY, not in 2020. Yes, such credits might favor Toyota because of the success of the Toyota Prius, but such hybrid sales success only pushes other automakers.
Hybrid tax credits NOW escalates automaker competition, increases R&D into battery technology, while shaping the consciousness of the American automobile consumer towards smarter, more fuel-efficient consumerism.
Instead, Congress gives billions of dollars to the oil industry and to the corn-based ethanol industry. Rather than subsidizing rich people to create energy, why not give consumers the ability to reward industries that are creating cleaner and greener energy and products?
Let's put power in the hands of the people, not self-serving corporations focused on profit above all else.
In 2007, Soultek and HybridCarBlog contacted members of Congress and tried to rally public support for extending and increasing the Clean Vehicle Tax Credit. Obviously, we didn't do enough. Let's make 2008 the year the people demand action. Congress is failing the people. Industry is failing the people.
Enough is enough. Join our Hybrid Car Revolution Campaign!
Tax credits only pander to the politics of loopholes, gotchas, and pork-through-complexity. Just put in a universal gas tax and let the consumers avoid it in the same was that will help the environment - through reduced consumption. Most people never see the credit anyway due to AMT.
I've advocated for a gas tax many times and I believe it would be the simplest most effective solution. Unfortunately, it's a topic that almost every politician won't touch with a ten foot pole.
No doubt tax credits are not a perfect solution, but they are the 'system' right now. Therefore, until a gas tax is a real political possibility, I'd rather tweak the system towards giving the power of the purse to the people rather than to industry. Let corporations compete for the tax credits through consumers.
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