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There’s a full assault on cleantech going on in the White House again. It’s ironic, or crazy, or scary that this is the case even as the shadow president is the wealthiest person in the world mostly because of his cleantech company…. Apparently, Elon Musk thinks he’s getting more out of his new role as volunteer president and doesn’t have any interest in fighting for cleantech as a whole. But will he allow Republicans to put a $1,000 tax on electric vehicles?
At least 11 federal agencies targeted by the Trump-Musk firings and cuts “have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions into Mr. Musk’s six companies”
per @nytimes pic.twitter.com/ap1qsK9Voq
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) February 11, 2025
This week, 15 Republican senators co-sponsored a bill to kill the US EV tax credit — which is actually three different EV subsidies. There’s the $7,500 tax credit that some electric vehicles and some buyers are eligible for. There’s the leasing loophole — the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit (45W). And there’s the Used Clean Vehicle Credit (25E) that can be used for used EVs. The bill would kill all of them. Elon Musk claimed last year that he didn’t care if they got rid of the tax credit, that it might hurt Tesla a bit but it would hurt Tesla’s (electric) competition more and that might help Tesla in the long term. Aside from being some weird and twisted logic that completely goes against Tesla’s mission, note that Tesla sales declined last year while a bunch of other automakers had their EV sales increase.
Anyway, there’s a solid chance Republicans do kill these EV subsidies. But we’ll watch how things proceed, and you can always start calling your Congressmen and Congresswomen now to say you think this is a horrible idea.
But wait, that’s not all!
Senator Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) has introduced a companion bill that will put a $1,000 extra tax on EVs at the point of sale. Nice. Supposedly, this is to make up for missed gas tax revenue, but it’s funny how no one has been willing to raise the gas tax to keep up with inflation for decades.
“Such a one-size-fits-all strategy for paying for EV road use, however, ignores the fact that in the U.S.—according to the federal government itself—EVs are driven less. According to the DOE, they cover 12% fewer miles on average than gasoline vehicles and 29% fewer miles than diesel models,” Green Car Reports notes.
A much more sensible thing to do would be to implement something people have been proposing for decades to replace the gas tax, like a tax per mile driven weighted by the weight of the vehicle. Of course, that would be far too sensible and fair for this bunch of loonitards.
Are we on the worst timeline? Well, who knows, but it’s horrible news if the already lagging US EV industry is going to lose EV tax credits and even get an EV tax thrown on. It’s just depressing that doesn’t come close to cracking the top 10 worst decisions of the year so far. We’re also abruptly and illegally halting billions of dollars in humanitarian aid while planning to spend billions on prisons for immigrants at GITMO. Ah, yes, a great melting pot, a nation of immigrants — what a beautiful ideal of a country. Where all men (and women) are created equal and there’s equal justice under the law.
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