Green heist ( The Michigan View 05.31.11)

Posted by hpayne on May 31, 2011

More heavy-hitters are so convinced that electric cars are the future that they’re willing to bet. . . your money on it.

This time it’s the Christian Right – teamed with military vets – who have decided green is a “values” issues. “American Values President Gary Bauer and former Commandant of the Marine Corps General James T. Conway are teaming up in support of electric vehicles,”reports The Daily Caller.

Usually this is the territory of the Religious Left, but the Religious Right believes oil is the root of all wars, and so they have enlisted FedEx poobah Fred Smith and former Marine Corps Commandant P.X. Kelley to support far left Democratic Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts in support of something called the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2011,

What’s it do? It spends your money to try to force consumers to buy products they don’t want. How generous of them.

“According to the bill’s sponsors, the legislation recognizes that infrastructure challenges are complex,” reports AutoBlogGreen.com. That is, consumers aren’t buying electrics because gas-powered vehicles are more convenient. “The act authorizes the Secretary of Energy to competitively award up to $300 million to 10 distinct communities across the nation. These communities will then serve as test beds for plug-in vehicle deployment.”

It’s fun to play with other people’s money. Unlike private investments on viable infrastructure – say, cell phones – this federal “investment” demands no return on your money or research into whether it is viable business model.

Imagine if your broker took $300 mil from you as a “test bed.”

Worse, your money is being given away to rich folks in rich neighborhoods that can afford $41k Chevy Volts as a third (or fifth) car. “The Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act. . . guarantees a plug-in vehicle purchasing incentive of at least $2,000 (beyond existing local and federal credits) for the first 50,000 buyers within each of the ten deployment communities. In addition, it extends, to the end of 2014, federal tax credits for the purchase and installation of charging equipment for individuals (up to $2,000).”

That is, in addition to their $7500 federal tax credit, green swells get an additional $4 grand to purchase an EV and home charging unit. Your face boiling red from all this green yet?

That businessmen like Smith are behind this only makes the heist more outrageous. These folks would better spend their time – and our money – by lobbying the Obama Administration to open up domestic oil production that they have shut down.

 

 

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