Volt Tax Break Clears One Hurdle
The US House of Representatives passed HR 6899 yesterday, which contains provisions for the "Volt" tax break. The House version of the bill cuts the break from the GM-suggested $7,500 to $5,000. Toyota publicly complained that the bill too narrowly defined the vehicles that would be eligible for the break, leading some analysts to speculate that the new Prius doesn't reach the 6 kWH bar set by the initial proposal. The version passed by the House lowered that mark to 5kWh. Currently, the Prius battery has a power output of 1.3 kWh. Toyota has not revealed the power output of the next generation model.
The measure passed by the House gives a tax credit of $3,000 to the buyer of any new plug-in electric vehicle with a battery of at least 5kWh. As the kWh goes up, so does the tax credit, in increments of $200/kWh. The Volt, with its 16kWh battery pack, is the only known vehicle that is eligible for the full credit.
The measure also included a provision that would require all gas stations to have at least one alternative-fuel pump by 2018. Alternative fuels are defined as natural gas, E85, biodiesel, renewable diesel and hydrogen. The bill provides for a $100,000 fine for each station that is not in compliance and a $50,000 credit per station for those that opt for E85.
The E85 provision is somewhat troubling. The provision would be much stronger if it applied only to cellulosic E85. Public policy shouldn't reward shrinking food production for the sake of fuel, especially when there are better sources of biomaterial than corn that can be redirected toward the production of E85.
Lawmakers should not be so focused on the problem of fuel that they neglect the reality we face: there is a limited amount of land on which corn can be grown. If certain production targets for corn-as-fuel are to be made, they must come at the expense of food production. What happens when Spring floods take out the E85 corn? Higher food and fuel prices?
Lawmakers would do well to extricate the questions of food and fuel. Technological solutions exist that don't require us to choose between two necessities.
September 18, 2008 - by admin · Filed Under General Hybrid Topics 1 Comment
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Before turning the proposed infrastructure improvement for E85 ethanol into another chapter of the tired and tedious food v. fuel fight, stop and consider that corn production is hardly in a steady state. Per acre yields double almost every generation and new seeds promise at least a 40 percent yield increase per acre by 2018. I work in Biofuels Communications at General Motors and we are particularly supportive of next-generation ethanol and biofuels. But we won’t get there without the highway that corn-based ethanol provides. Would it be better for a government that is seems to bailing out industries right and left (with our tax dollars) to return to the days of subsidizing farmers to avoid planting corn? That would sure make a difference in the food issues, wouldn’t it? Other nations need to learn better crop management techniques. The issue here is productivity. According to the USDA, the 2008 corn harvest will be the second largest on record — plenty of corn for food and fuel. If E85 ethanol is going to really be an alternative fuel to gasoline, we need it to be more readily available. There are fewer than 1,800 stations that sell E85 in the US and most of those are in the Midwest. It’s time to get off ethanol’s case — world hunger was here before ethanol and until we focus more on teaching others how to grow crops more efficiently, we will continue to have this problem.