President Obama is proposing efforts to promote America's energy independence, including tax credits for electric vehicles.
President Barack Obama is proposing a number of new efforts designed to improve the nation’s transportation system, with a mix of high-speed rails, cleaner fuels, tax credits for those buying alternatively powered vehicles – and as much as $2 billion in funding for advanced vehicle programs.
“We’ll continue our march toward energy independence,” Obama said in presenting his budget proposal to Congress. A key goal will be to eliminate the need for foreign oil imports over the next decade.
Part of that would involve increasing the Department of Energy’s vehicle research budget by 75% to $575 million, while also creating an energy trust fund the administration had previously outlined.
The budget proposal renewed the White House push to expand credits for those buying electric vehicles and plug-ins. Such buyers now qualify for up to $7,500 in tax credits – for which they may have to wait months until next filing with the IRS. The administration would like to bump the number up to $10,000 for qualified vehicles and have the credits become available more immediately.
That credit program, which would continue through 2021, could eventually cost up to $4.2 billion if ambitious sales targets are met.
Proponents of alternative power have contended this could help spur demand in a nascent battery-car market, which has been lagging behind expectations – though sales have shown a bit of momentum in recent months.
The Obama White House has been strongly in favor of electric propulsion since taking power in early 2009, but recent pronouncements indicate a broadening of support for other alternatives, including hydrogen fuel cell technology. That may reflect the fact that it is considered highly unlikely the U.S. will have the 1 million plug-based vehicles on the road in 2015 Pres. Obama originally called for.
The administration also is calling for credits of anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000 for alternative-powered medium and heavy-duty trucks.
“We generally support incentives that can help move our models from dealer lots to people’s driveways,” a spokesperson for the trade group the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said, “but we defer to policymakers in setting the precise dollar amount needed to increase sales.”
The president couldn’t buy a clue about advanced transportation with the $2 Billion he will piss away on this pork project intended to reward political cronies. The reason there isn’t going to be one million EV’s on the road by 2015 is because EV’s are a bad joke trying to be sold to the public by Obama.
Most American’s do not support EV’s as they are completely impractical for 99% of society and we sure as Hell don’t support tax breaks for EVs and tree huggers – which we pay for. These impractical EVs will be nothing more than toxic scrap in a few years. Those who operate EV’s don’t even pay their fair share in road taxes as they don’t buy gasoline which is where road tax is charged. EV buyers/owners should actually be charged additional taxes instead of receiving a tax break. Who do you think is going to have to pay for the toxic battery disposal with EV’s? Right, tax payers will be on the hook again, not those why buy impractical EVs and get a $7,500-$10,000 tax incentive, a subsidised sticker price and who fail to pay any road taxes.
The DOE is just as clueless as Obama and they have never had a logical or reasonable energy policy. All they do is piss away money and make life miserable for the populace.
There is absolutely no reason why tax payers should be bearing the financial debt of the failed policies of the U.S. government who can’t even create jobs in this country. It’s a disgrace how incompetent the Feds have become as they continue to destroy the U.S. on many different levels.