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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