Hybrid
tax credits and the Hydrogen Highway NOW!
Tuesday,
November 13, 2007
How
Congress can empower America with an Energy Revolution
Global warming, foreign oil dependency, oil company
profits, and especially CAFE are very common and important
topics discussed regularly by many in Congress. Even
Presidential candidates are one-upping each other with
their CAFE plans.
Similarly, many environmental groups have also been
particularly focused on CAFE. Yet, sadly, even the most
stringent plan in Congress is going to do little to
significantly affect either global warming or foreign oil
dependence based upon America's history of year-after-year
of increased fuel consumption.
And the other favorite of Congress, corn-based ethanol,
might even be less effective than CAFE, or even harmful.
America needs an energy paradigm change, an energy
revolution.
A better way forward
Today, the once-ridiculed Toyota
Prius is the 14th best selling vehicle in America, and
one can only imagine how many more Prius hybrid
vehicles would be selling if the full tax credit were
available. Nonetheless, hybrid tax credits were a
significant part of Prius success.
Also, how many more Toyota
Camry hybrids would be selling if tax credits were
still available? Already, the Toyota Camry hybrid is
blowing away all other hybrid competition in terms of
sales, aside from the Prius. Full tax credits would make
it a lot easier - when comparing a conventional Camry to a
hybrid Camry - to go with a hybrid Camry.
And, considering foreign oil dependency and global
warming, can we really sell too many hybrid vehicles?
Quite simply, we can't get them on the road fast enough,
and the more hybrids Toyota sells, the more pressure it
puts on other automakers to compete.
Tax Credit Costs
Congress should extend tax
credits for hybrid vehicles NOW. Stop penalizing
Toyota. While some critics might question the cost of such
a program, a closer look proves the costs are an
incredible investment opportunity.
Let us imagine that Congress extended the new hybrid tax
credit to the first 1,000,000 hybrid vehicles at an
average of $3,000 apiece. $3 billion dollars for a million
hybrid vehicles is still less
than what the government spends on corn-based ethanol per
year. It would also be less than the billions Congress has
given away to small business owners for buying the largest
gas-guzzlers as well.
Plus, not only would every automaker significantly ramp up
their hybrid efforts, so to would automotive part's
suppliers. Thus, more competition would lead to more
production for electric motors and batteries, for example,
especially lithium-ion batteries - a key to both plug-in
hybrids and electric vehicles. All of this helps
create the economies of scale that would make hybrid
technology significantly more cost-effective.
Consumer tax credits for clean technologies, such as
hybrids, also sends a message to automakers that they must
compete to create the most fuel efficient vehicles
possible today, not tomorrow.
More important, a new Rand
study claims that while hybrid vehicles offer many
positive benefits to society, E85 does not. Thus, hybrid
tax credits are simply are a much better investment than
corn-based ethanol.
So, why are we wasting billions EVERY year on something
that is doing very little - corn-based ethanol - when we
could be investing in the technology of the future? In an
energy revolution?
That revolutionary change, however, shouldn't end with tax
credits for hybrid cars, or battery research for plug-in
hybrids and electric vehicles. That's just the beginning,
but it's something than can be done TODAY.
The hydrogen highway
Recently, I finally gave my support to the hydrogen
highway, something I was opposed to for the last couple of
years. However, considering the exorbitant costs of simply
securing America's access to OPEC oil - easily over $50
billion per year - kick
starting the hydrogen highway is well worth the risk.
Fuel cell vehicles are almost ready and breakthroughs
in hydrogen production are occurring.
According to Jeremy Rifkin's Hydrogen Economy, converting
America's fleet of automobiles to fuel cell vehicles
would, in theory, produce several times more energy than
America's energy companies do today. Coupled with wind
power, solar power and home fuel cells not just America's
transportation system could change, but America's entire
energy paradigm.
Now that's a revolution, an energy revolution.
Small electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids for city
driving powered by wind power and solar power stored as
hydrogen and pumped back into the grid when needed.
Hydrogen powered fuel cell hybrid trucks and buses, etc.
for longer, more intensive driving. Everything connected
via a distributed energy grid with multiple and almost
endless backup systems - every car serving as a generator
for the grid, or just your home.
How could terrorists attack that?
Vision coupled with inspired competition - that should be
the focus of Congress. Tax credits for hybrids and the
hydrogen highway are two small investments relative to
just oil costs, let alone pollution and global warming,
yet they have the potential to radically change America
and the world.
An amazing convergence of clean, green and almost
unlimited energy technologies are at hand. Will Congress
heed the challenge, or just keep sniffing the pig's ass?
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