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Trump Administration Wants To End Subsidies For Electric Cars, Renewables (reuters.com)
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday that the United States wants to end subsidies for electric cars and other items including renewable energy sources. "Asked about actions planned after General Motors announced U.S. plant closings and layoffs last week, Kudlow said he expected subsidies for buying electric cars will end in 2020 or 2021," reports Reuters. "Kudlow said the Trump administration will end other subsidies, including on 'renewables.'"
That's completely false. Even in areas where the electricity is generated by coal, they still result in lower emissions than gas cars. And as the electric grid gets cleaner, the cars get cleaner. Also, a significantly higher percentage of EV owners install solar, so much of the power is completely emissions free.
The URL in the top post leads to a story about trade talks. Different source, but the material about subsidies.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news...
I personally don't want to die in a car that is not much bigger then a beer can
Is this why so many Americans are alcoholics? It's a perfectly reasonably sized four-door sedan. I realize you people generally don't leave the house unless everyone in your family can belch soot from their very own oversize vehicle, but those of us in the civilized world realize we don't need an aircraft carrier on wheels to pick up the kids from sports practice.
A free market for energy does not exist. OPEC is a cartel of countries that set production levels to manipulate oil prices and control the supply.
OPEC is a cartel. But the market is less distorted than you think, at least in the US.
The US consumes about 20 million barrels/day of oil (source). Net imports are 5 million. 1/3 of imports come from OPEC countries. So OPEC is not able to exert monopolistic power.
Today's price for OPEC crude is $58.33. West Texas crude is at $53.37. Suffice it to say, any oil user in the US that has access to WTI crude is getting it. Imported crude users are likely refineries that do not have pipeline access to the domestic supply.
Once US oil exports ramp up, things might change, but for now, OPEC's price-setting ability is pretty subdued in the US.
Provisions of the federal income tax that subsidize domestic production of fossil fuels include the expensing of exploration, development, and intangible drilling costs; the use of percentage depletion instead of cost depletion to recover drilling and development costs of oil and gas wells and coal mining properties; and numerous smaller incentives for production and distribution of oil, coal, and natural gas.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
To the tune of about 50 cents per gallon. This far, far exceeds the subsidy oil companies receive, which works out to less than 10 cents per gallon even if you attribute the entire subsidy to gasoline (they make other products with oil too, like kerosene, asphalt, plastics). I think heating oil is the only petroleum product which is generally exempted from taxes (because poor people freezing to death in winter makes bad press for politicians).
You can argue we're not taxing fossil fuels enough. But it's silly to pretend they're not taxed. As the Tesla EVs are rated at about 30 kWh per 100 miles, at the U.S. average electricity price of 11.5 cents/kWh, that works out to $3.45 of electricity per 100 miles. A 25 MPG vehicle pays $2 in fuel taxes per 100 miles, so its taxes amount to 58% of the electricity price needed to power the EV. In some states with higher fuel taxes, the fuel tax alone is about the same as the cost of electricity to power an EV over the same route.
The Federal $7500 EV subsidy was structured as a tax credit. To take full advantage of the credit, you had to owe at least $7500 on your Federal taxes the year you bought/leased the EV. If you look at the 2016 IRS tax stats, you had to make about $80k/yr (column O*1000 / column N) to receive the full credit, which would put you in the top third of the U.S. by income. Someone making the U.S. median income of $59k would only receive about $4500. Or put another way, the subsidy makes that Leaf cost $3k less for the guy making $80k+ than it does for someone making $59k.
If you don't like EVs, you should be for repealing the subsidy because you don't think EVs should be subsidized.
If you like EVs, you should be for repealing the subsidy because it unfairly benefits wealthy people.
I'm too lazy to search but there is a great video of a old Volvo 4 door colliding with a new smart car. My money was totally on the Volvo creaming the smart car. Turns out it went the other way and the fkn smart car totaled the Volvo! Something something "impact zones"
Volvo impact zones are great.
Volvo impact zones were great for the size and type of vehicle manufactured in a given year. That is all. There is no more to it than that.
Here's an older Volvo colliding with a small Renault POS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Unlikely the Volvo driver survives. Age and design play fare more of a role than "volvo great!"
And some marketing for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Smart colliding with a vehicle with over twice it's mass.