McCain Backs Zero Emission Cars, Battery Contest

Senator John McCain is making a bid for the green vote, a vote that Republicans have ignored since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. He will suggest today a $5,000 tax credit for people who buy zero-emission cars, and he will offer a $300 million prize to anyone who can develop a battery system that makes an improvement on current electrical car technology. Both are admirable ideas, but they will bring him into conflict with free-market fundamentalists in his own party.

With regard to the $5,000 tax credit for zero-emission cars, the genius of the proposal is in forcing the car companies to build them in quantity to retain customers. He will also say, “For other vehicles, whatever type they may be, the lower the carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit.” Since US car companies are carrying huge healthcare costs, this subsidy would probably make it more likely that Detroit can shift to multiple energy engines without going bust. As any economist will note, subsidies make people consume more than they otherwise would. In the case of cleaner cars, it’s a wise policy.

Mr. McCain will also say, “I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and resolve of the American people by offering a $300 million prize for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars. This is one dollar for every man, woman and child in the US – a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency – and should deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs.”

The $10 million dollar X-Prize helped drive the development of a commercial, private-sector spacecraft. It is certain that a prize 30 times as big would get engineers thinking along these lines. Electricity, though, is problematic in combating America’s carbon footprint (a terrible term, surely there’s a better one?) because most of the US relies on oil, coal and natural gas to run its electricity plants.

That Mr. McCain is making a play for green votes is to his credit, and the wisdom on not taxing SUV’s that burn gasoline shows that he does understand that the electorate likes carrots but not sticks. Whether the GOP can resign itself to government interference in the marketplace to bring about market changes that the country needs will be the measure of just how serious the Republicans are at reclaiming the title of America’s party of common sense.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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