Long-term transportation and infrastructure budget challenges are concerning for all Pennsylvanians who want good roads, but even more so for the union trades that work to improve and expand our infrastructure (Feb. 16, “Rough Roads: Pennsylvania Facing Tough Decisions on Transportation Funding”).
The mechanism we use to pay for road and bridge repair is the fuel tax that feeds the Federal Highway Trust Fund. Right now, 18.4 cents per gallon of gas goes to the Highway Trust Fund, which in turn is used for transportation infrastructure repair.
Senator Chuck Grassley is seeking greater scrutiny of a tax credit program for electric cars after oversight revealed pervasive problems – including widespread fraud. Grassley’s watchdog role is important, as Democrats are pushing to expand the program. In a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig, Grassley pressed for more information about how the IRS administers the $7,500 credit for purchasing all-electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
No fewer than three separate auto manufacturers — Porsche, GM and Audi — ran ads featuring electric vehicles during the Super Bowl this year. With 30-second spots going for at least $5 million a pop, you can bet the decision to run those ads didn’t come lightly.
A few weeks back, I wrote Tesla didn’t need another government bailout in the form of an expansion of the electric vehicle (EV) tax credit. Since then, the company announced some very impressive earnings: Tesla generated $24.6 billion in revenue in 2019 and produced a $105 million profit in the fourth quarter. Suffice it to say, the market has found its EV winner. Any additional talk about propping up this industry with taxpayer dollars overlooks the reality of the situation.
Hybrids largely beat out all-electrics in a new ranking of the most “environmentally friendly” cars, even as some automakers signal a turn away from hybrids for the future of their business. The scorecard, published yesterday by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), found that of the 12 cars that produced the least greenhouse gas emissions, nine of them were hybrids, compared to three all-electric models. Hybrids also constituted four of the top five vehicles on the list.
A recent government investigation found that nearly $74 million in taxpayer dollars may have been fraudulently claimed by individuals who did not qualify for that money. How were they able to do to that? Through the electric vehicle (EV) payout program. Over a four-year span, U.S. taxpayers filed 16,510 tax returns that potentially claimed fraudulent taxpayer money for purchasing EVs.…
Talk to an energy or climate wonk, and it’s almost an article of faith that the electric car is the next big thing. It needs to happen to solve climate change; the prices for batteries are dropping; it’s only a matter of time. But will that transition become apparent in 2022 … or in 2030?