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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (9638)	2/20/2007 7:27:25 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 36917

Can you name one government tax that has had behavioral results similar to the results predicted that "sold" legislators or administrators on the tax? Government actions almost always cause perverse distortions that harm more than they help. The idea of acting on the conjecture of Global Warming Religious fanatics most dire story lines reminds me of a children's book. It was about a Fox that tried to trick a chicken into making an easy meal of itself for the fox. Everyone ran around yelling "the sky's a falling." In the end nobody cared. I understand the need for big government lovers to create fear to scare people into clamoring for more government intervention. Dealing with the unwitting participants of the deception is hard enough, what I worry about is the leaders of the deception. As soon as this hoax is discredited, they move onto the next one. Are you old enough to remember the fear mongering about the impending ice age? That was only thirty years ago that that deception was foisted off and eventually refuted. How far should we travel down the path of the next deception before we ask for credible scientific evidence and debate without the deceivers trying to cut off debate and stop the presentation of evidence that undermines their desired result? .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. For example: A California program to encourage hybrid cars has some unexpected consequences. BY RICHARD B. MCKENZIE Monday, February 19, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST IRVINE, Calif.--In 2006, the California legislature authorized the state Department of Motor Vehicles to distribute 85,000 stickers to the owners of gasoline-electric hybrid cars. The stickers allow drivers to travel without passengers in all of the state's high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, which were formerly restricted to cars with two or more passengers. A report determined that California's HOV lanes were operating only at two-thirds of their capacity and not easing congestion as much as they could; the idea was to stimulate demand for hybrids and thus reduce the emissions of greenhouse pollutants. The sticker distribution did exactly what it was supposed to do. People wanted to shave time off their commute, and the stickers drove up demand for hybrids for the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic hybrid (the only cars that qualified for stickers), so much so that the small Prius has been selling for over $30,000, and until recently had waiting lists. The Civic hybrid has carried a dealer "added premium" to the manufacturer's suggested list price of as much as $4,000 (with the hybrid Civic total price nearly $7,500 higher than the quoted price of a non-hybrid Civic). But it seems that the hybrid HOV program, rather than suppressing automobile use, did the exact opposite: The program was wildly popular, and the HOV lanes became clogged. Californians began talking about "Prius backlash." Then at the end of January, the DMV ran out of stickers, leaving more than 800 new Prius and Civic hybrid owners, who may have been enticed to buy their hybrids at premium prices inflated by sticker advantage and who applied for the stickers, without the right to drive alone in the state's HOV lanes. Now that there are no more stickers for distribution, what can be expected to happen in the California market for hybrids? First, we should expect a drop in the demand for new hybrids at dealers, along with a drop in their negotiated sale prices. ... ... Message 23302647