GREEN Act: US Democrats to push EV sales cap + E-BIKE Act

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The Biden administration is looking to increase the upper limit for the number of subsidised electric vehicles per manufacturer. The bill called the Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now (GREEN) Act, would benefit manufacturers such as Tesla and GM.

The GREEN Act would triple the electric vehicle credit cap for carmakers to 600,000 cars, though the tax credit becomes $7,000 per vehicle after the first 200,000 EVs are sold. Given that Tesla, for example, has passed the 200,000-vehicle threshold long ago, this would make another 400,000 more customers eligible for the tax credit. The Model 3 would finally fall below the $30,000-mark after the subsidy.

Once 600,000 sales are reached, the phase-out phase sets in as before. Reads the bill: “At the start of the new phaseout period created under the bill, the credit is reduced by 50 per cent for one calendar quarter and subsequently ends. For manufacturers that already passed the 200,000 threshold before the enactment of the bill, the number of vehicles sold in between 200,000 and those sold on the date of enactment is excluded in determining when the 600,000 threshold is reached.”

It looks as though however that these subsidies will not be applied retroactively as the bill only speaks of qualified plug-ins sold “after the date of the enactment of the GREEN Act of 2021”. At the same time, the transition period has been given as December 2009 in the text so we are waiting to find out more.

President Biden’s advance is not entirely new. A bill called the Driving America Forward Act had been introduced by senators from both parties, Democrats and Republicans in 2019, providing for the same conditions as above. Only then President Trump had later abandoned the plan as part of his pushback on climate-protection.

The Biden administration since in office has been busy with unravelling and reversing these policies. The President issued an executive order that essentially put climate-change at the heart of the Nation’s agenda. Section 109 asks all government agencies to identify any fossil fuel subsidies provided, and then “take steps to ensure that, to the extent consistent with applicable law, Federal funding is not directly subsidizing fossil fuels.” The new GREEN act also includes and extends provisions for solar or wind and other forms of renewable energy to help with investments.

Perhaps that is why Tesla CEO Elon Musk felt endeared to propose a carbon tax to President Biden. Electrek quotes an podcast with Joe Rogan. Musk said: “I talked to the Biden administration [about implementing a carbon tax] and they were like ‘Well, this seems to be too politically difficult’.”

The Tesla boss is not the only one who has been promoting the idea. Even Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has been calling for taxation – in his case to increase the existing one. In the US, Tesla would like to see the tax being applied at the point of consumption, i.e. at a pit-stop, something that has been happening tentatively in Germany already. A carbon tax on electricity generated from coal and natural gas and gasoline would naturally benefit Tesla, although it would increase SpaceX costs.

On more green notes, federal legislation to create a state-wide tax incentive for electric bicycles was introduced this week as part of the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment (E-BIKE) Act. Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) took charge on it and hope to sign a 30% tax credit of up to $1,500 for buying an electric bicycle into law. An eligible electric bicycle would have to cost less than $8,000, which is, of course, the vast majority of pedelecs in the US. In most states, electric bicycles still qualify as such with pedal assist support to up 30 mph (45 kph) and up to 20 mph (32 km/h) with a hand throttle – on the continent, this would place in the category electric moped/e-bike or speed pedelec.

Any bills still have to undergo the legislative process, but with the Democrats now holding both Houses, the chances are that change will come.

teslarati.com, nextbigfuture.com, autoevolution.com (Green Act), electrek.co, panetta.house.gov (E-Bike act), electrek.co (carbon tax, Musk)

7 Comments

about „GREEN Act: US Democrats to push EV sales cap + E-BIKE Act“
Kenneth Lane
13.02.2021 um 08:19
WE Americans are ever hopeful our Democrats can correct the path our nation was lead down by our Republican enemies of our state. We are accustomed to this cycle of destruction by Rightwingers and repair by Liberal Democrats. It has gone on most of my 74 years.
NonPartisan
16.02.2021 um 16:02
While I agree that we are not going down the right path. I believe both parties are to blame and we should NOT have the tribalism mindset where we close our minds and only listen to one party and not take a look at what both parties have done. We should work together to come up with a solution that both sides are happy with instead of treating the other party as enemies. If we treat the others as enemies, we are only just further dividing our country and history could just end up repeating itself like it did in the 1860s. But what do I know?
scottzilla
28.02.2021 um 23:57
I wish that We could all get together on our strengths. Do you want Medicare for all? Education for our children, affordable housing or high cost health, housing, and education? Payday loans charging 70%? Corporations paid 30% of the federal budget in the 60’s, now they pay 6%. Republicans like Eisenhower I can get behind but I don’t know what they stand for other than pleasuring their billionaire masters now. The same could be said for Democrats too, as the unions that supported them are down to 5% of workers represented. They have to go hat in hand to the Economic Royals for funding. We need to go to publicly funded elections where money is no longer “free speech”.
SomeDude
19.02.2021 um 07:05
Sure, that would be nice. But how can you make that happen when you have so many people on the right discount real science for science-fiction, assume all mainstream media is fake media, and ready to believe whatever demagogue is ready to yell out of a microphone, or whatever they'll read on some forum suggesting the left is just a bunch of pizza-eating pedophiles?Fact is the ignorant prefer to remain ignorant if ignorance is common around them. Should they wish to become "learned folk", they are shunned from their ignorant social circles and is a "fag" or "another brainwashed dumbass". You can't reason with many of these people, no matter how low to their level you get ...So fact of the matter is, shit has got to be done, and I for one I'm glad things are the way they are ... it'll be pretty darn difficult for folks to claim the Left left them to rut when they start seeing nice paychecks when working at Gigafactories in Nevada and Texas...
Anon27582
23.02.2021 um 20:25
There seems to be a contradiction in the text of the bill in regards to potential of it being retroactive. Namely the section regarding the "Transition" period. Why write that section at all if the credit is not retroactive? Hopefully they clear up any confusion in the coming weeks / months regarding this. It would appear as it it's currently written it would mean that a $7,000 would be available to cars sold after the 200,000 limit. They should make clear if it's retroactive to January 1st 2021 or not.
Nora Manthey
25.02.2021 um 12:06
Hi, yes indeed. We have been trying to figure that out ourselves but it looks like we need to wait for it to actually go through and to see how it will be applied in practice.
Pete
01.03.2021 um 17:36
When is this supposed to be voted on?

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