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Secret "ALEC" in Big Debate between Oil and Electric for Subsidies! Not many of us have heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), yet this group of Utility companies clashed recently with the oil industry that wants to kill all EV subsidies and yet Oil takes in billions in subsidies from the federal government now. This group has clearly been an ultra conservative group till recently where it has split into two camps, those that are backed by big oil and their desire to kill subsidies and those utilities that have gone very green and want to increase offering subsidies to buyers of all things electric. At the spring meeting, the new Green Utilities put forth a measure that would offer subsidies for non-gas auto's. This included electric, natural gas, biofuel, propane, bio diesel auto's and subsidies for said fueling infrastructure. The interesting part is that this new resolution was put forth by the Koch brothers, oil magnates as well as Ebell's CEI and the conservative group Americans for Prosperity in addition to EEI "The Edison Electric Institute". These groups believe that utilities offering subsidies that would in some cases reduce to zero cost installation of home fast chargers, reduced kWh rates and rebates on EV / Plug-in Hybrid auto's would help spur additional sales of electricity increasing the expansion of a better electrical grid across north america. On the other side you have representatives from Texas, Duke Energy and some folks from Trump's EPA transition team lobbying against it. This was confirmed by EEI. Since this was at a tie in voting, it looks to be brought up at the fall meeting again for a vote. If this goes through, one can only wonder how big the rebates on auto's could be in addition to the charging systems, etc. Check out the two links below for more info. Think of states like California that have fed rebates, state rebates and if utilities offer rebates, this could push EV auto's to very low cost to own. Utility Drive Green Car Report -
Volkswagen CEO Says Maybe It Is Time To Cut Diesel Subsidies
William Maley posted an article in Volkswagen
Diesel is quite popular in Europe partly due to subsidies provided by governments - in this case, a lower tax rate on diesel fuel than gasoline. The thinking at the time was diesel engines burn their fuel more efficiently than gas engines, thus they contribute less to global warming. But as the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal would reveal, diesel vehicles aren't that much cleaner, producing more nitrogen oxide emissions than their gas counterparts. Now, one CEO from a German automaker is saying that maybe it is time to end the subsidies. “We should question the logic and purpose of diesel subsidies. The money can be invested more sensibly to promote more environmentally friendly technologies,” said Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller to German paper Handelsblatt. This is quite the surprise as Volkswagen along with other German automakers said diesel still had a future due to new pollution reduction technologies. Also, Volkswagen did very well with the sales of diesel models. But with the dark cloud of the diesel emission scandal, Müller likely sees the writing on the wall and wants to get out ahead. Müller went on to say that he was in favor of banning older diesel vehicles from city centers. But he said that newer diesel vehicles should be exempt from the bans as they meet "stricter standards on nitrogen oxide emissions". Source: Handelsblatt via New York Times -
Diesel is quite popular in Europe partly due to subsidies provided by governments - in this case, a lower tax rate on diesel fuel than gasoline. The thinking at the time was diesel engines burn their fuel more efficiently than gas engines, thus they contribute less to global warming. But as the Volkswagen diesel emission scandal would reveal, diesel vehicles aren't that much cleaner, producing more nitrogen oxide emissions than their gas counterparts. Now, one CEO from a German automaker is saying that maybe it is time to end the subsidies. “We should question the logic and purpose of diesel subsidies. The money can be invested more sensibly to promote more environmentally friendly technologies,” said Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller to German paper Handelsblatt. This is quite the surprise as Volkswagen along with other German automakers said diesel still had a future due to new pollution reduction technologies. Also, Volkswagen did very well with the sales of diesel models. But with the dark cloud of the diesel emission scandal, Müller likely sees the writing on the wall and wants to get out ahead. Müller went on to say that he was in favor of banning older diesel vehicles from city centers. But he said that newer diesel vehicles should be exempt from the bans as they meet "stricter standards on nitrogen oxide emissions". Source: Handelsblatt via New York Times View full article
