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Should governments give tax credits for alternative fuel vehicles?
Results so far:
| Yes | 72% | 454 votes | Total: 627 votes | |
| No | 28% | 173 votes |
Yes
by Elizabeth M Young
Created on: September 12, 2009
Our government has a well established role in giving support to those who invest in infrastructure, new and beneficial technologies, and research for the benefit of all citizens. The railroads would never have been designed and built. Water, sewage and septic systems would never have been designed and built. Our highway systems, toll roads, and bridges could not be capitalized by independent investors alone. Our commercial aircraft would not be where they are if the military had not invested so much in research and development. A products like smoke detectors, memory foam and Kevlar might not be available now if it NASA scientists had not invented them for space travel.
Tax breaks for alternative fuel vehicles is just another bit of progress in encouraging development, investment, and change for the good. Reducing dependence on fossil fuels will create political, financial, and other benefits for the nation as a whole. Reducing the particle emissions and smog that traditional cars create will improve our air quality and reduce the mess of particles that settle on everything that we own.
A whole new economy of scale will develop as production jobs transfer over to production lines where more alternative vehicles are made. With more availability, the cost of alternative driving will drop to acceptable levels. With less dependency on fossil fuels, gas crises, whether from natural causes or from manipulations that create scarcity and profit taking, will have less impact on our driving and other costs of living.
In addition to individuals, businesses which are able to invest in alternative fuel vehicles should receive tax breaks that they can apply to reduce the cost of food and other essential services and goods.
Alternative fuel vehicles can tend to be far more expensive than traditional cars because production and sales have not reached the point where the cost to build the vehicles is competitive with traditional cars. In these cases, a buyer who receives some form of financial incentive is encouraged to invest in a riskier choice.
In some states, the car fee and tax rate for just five years of ownership can run over $2,000! There should be a break for a buyer who takes a chance on new technology, a manufacturer which may go into failure, and a car that might have problems with performance, and failure. These are the problems that a virtual prototype is likely to have, and those who invest in them should not have to pay excessive taxes on them.
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No
by xe
Created on: November 30, 2008 Last Updated: December 03, 2008
Tax Credits are not the proper way to go green or encourage sustainable energy conservation, any more than cheap gas and easy credit were good reasons for so many to buy and drive wasteful SUV's in the recent past. Tax credits can be one of several negative contributors which artificially skew the free market, and result in vehicles being tooled and manufactured for the wrong reasons. If a technology is viable, it will be introduced, survive and thrive. If the business case in a free market economy is based on bribing the consumer, then it is not a good idea.
Based upon my research, when a technology is introduced and marketed based upon tax credits and other artificial acts, the business model normally is based upon some manipulation of the decision-makers by investors or groups who profit not from the long-term viability of the technology but from the short-term tax breaks and financial distortions that result from these actions.
The most recent corn-for-fuel experiment is a perfect example of how lobbyists and investors with only financial interests can profit from the well-intentioned but over-emotional actions of the consumer. Higher food prices and a number of other backlash effects have been felt, while the reality is that the fuel costs more and delivers less energy than regular gasoline, while in no way showing the ability to justify the dedicated investment to the artificially created enterprise. The auto manufacturers benefit artificially, in that they are allowed to claim tax breaks for manufacturing these flex fuel vehicles, while only a very small percentage of buyers ever even try the fuel. Additionally, most of those who do soon realize that their mileage per dollar is lower, and quickly migrate back to conventional fuels.
I can find no proposal for these tax-credit enhanced proposals which is built upon a business case which, without these breaks, would stand alone as a viable technology or investment. There are so many alternatives under development that the choice to force a select few into favor represents a huge gamble that without free-market competition we are selecting the correct ones.
At the turn of the twentieth century, many electric cars were manufactured in addition to the steam-powered versions. The free market decided which direction to take based upon a number of factors involving consumer value and convenience. These same factors should drive the technologies and alternative energy developments today. If the sheer existence of a new powertrain is justified by tax breaks in one country, what is the global market for this product? The ability to leverage economies of scale and participate in global competition is over-ruled by the greed of the financiers who make money whether the technology survives a few years or is in fact the correct long-term choice.
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