What incentives?
I have already answered this a dozen times, but I'll recite them again:
* tax incentives for consumers to buy alternative energy vehicles
* tax incentives to corporations for retooling to build alternative energy vehicles
* tax incentives to utilities to increase their use of alternative energies from sources other than coal
* tax incentives to alternative energy providers such as wind, solar, thermal, nuclear
* streamlined, fast tracked permitting for alternative energy providers
* all of the above codified in a long term legislation that guarantees stability for 20 years or more
Who benefits?
The benefits are so numerous, that I will be forced to go into very brief summarization of the end state vision benefits (long term benefits):
* our economy will no longer be dependent on a commodity that is controlled by OPEC, which in turn is controlled by our worst enemies
* we will no longer be sending hundreds of billions to our worst enemies in return for their oil, which means we will no longer feel the need to go to war over oil or give two shits about what happens in the Middle East
* we will stop polluting and destroying our environment
* once the investment is made, our energy infrastructure and sources will provide this country with extremely low cost energy, since the wind, sun, and other sources of renewable energy are free; all the renewable power plants will have to pay for is maintenance
How much do they benefit?
It's a good question and one that has been estimated. I don't have that information at my fingertips, though. Maybe Eric does. He's been a source of this kind of info before. I can give you a generality, though. Electric vehicles cost 1-2 cents per mile to operate compared to gas vehicle cost of 10-12 cents per mile. The cost benefit is there and it will get better when we reach economies of scale.
Who handles the payment of the benefits?
The tax incentives will be handled through the tax preparer and the IRS.
How do we cover the cost of those benefits?
The cost can be recovered from the reduce cost of our military from fewer unnecessary wars. From shifting the burden of securing our oil supplies from our military to the oil companies. And from repealing the tax subsidies for oil companies. In addition, the tax incentives will not be permanent. Think of it as a public investment in the incubation of a new industry that the venture capitalists in Silicon Valley have stated will create more wealth than the Internet did. And we will be the leaders in that industry.
Are there economic impacts?
Yes. Please see above answers.
What should be done to reduce those economic impacts?
The up front investment will cost money and we have to recover that cost from somewhere. The scale and types of tax incentives that I'm talking about could be had for $100-200B, which is about what we spend in Iraq in one year. I propose that we shut the Iraq war down, bring our troops home and immediately repeal all tax incentives and other subsidies from the oil companies. Those measures will pay for all of the cost of incubating the alternative energy industry. |
