Forcing Clean Energy On Consumers [Reader Post]

In the “let the consumer decide” department, the benefits of alternative-energy vehicles like the Chevy Volt don’t outweigh the costs to consumers. Yet President Barack Hussein Obama wants, with tax dollars, to make alternative-energy vehicles ownership easier and prices more in line with conventional vehicle models by:

• increasing the $7,500 tax credit for alternative-energy vehicles to $10,000
• earmarking $1 billion to reward cities that provide infrastructure for such vehicles
• earmarking $650 million for a research program to increase the range and decrease the price of alternative-energy vehicles
• repealing $4 billion of tax incentives for oil and gas companies to “pay” for his proposed tax credits and earmarks
• giving a new five-year tax break for those who buy commercial trucks that run on electricity or natural gas

These were the measures he proposed in a speech before the Daimler Trucks North America manufacturing plant in Charlotte, NC on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, to address high gasoline prices. He said nothing about increasing oil production. While tax credits may give consumers more reason to purchase alternative-energy vehicles, they won’t give manufacturers any incentive to look for cheaper ways to manufacture them. Obama’s proposed tax credit increase ensures that taxpayers will continue to pay an arbitrarily high price for alternative-energy vehicles long after the market would have brought costs down. The responsibility is with manufacturers, not taxpayers, to produce an alternative-energy vehicle that consumers actually want to purchase, and at a price they can afford. That also means that government should not, through tax credits, try to foist alternative-energy vehicles on consumers.

In short, “let the consumer decide.” But that is not how the big government socialist central decision-makers work. We consumers don’t know what’s good for us. We are too stupid to make our own decisions. So big government must intervene. The tax code exists to raise revenue so the federal government can fulfill certain basic, essential functions that individuals or state and local governments cannot, such as defense. Tax credits, tax subsidies, and tax penalties turn the tax code into an instrument to manipulate behavior instead.

Regarding repealing oil and gas company tax incentives, Obama said, “It’s time to end that taxpayer giveaway to an industry that’s never been more profitable, invest in clean energy that’s never been more promising.” But he made no mention of the clean energy bankruptcies or the subsidies given to politically connected clean energy companies. BTW, Obama has a stated goal of having one million electric vehicles on US roads by 2015.

But that’s just my opinion.