I was thinking about this just yesterday. I was thinking about this post by Debbie Cook in the May 6 DB

Hopefully this new tax break does NOT include any guzzlers that were purchased under Bush's 2002 tax credit that offered a $100,000 tax credit to business owners who purchased "any vehicle weighing 6000 pounds or more when fully loaded." Concurrently with that legislation, Bush was phasing out the $2000 tax break for purchasing fuel efficient hybrid cars.

When you consider the additional cost of buying a hybrid or battery EV one has to wonder what would have been the result if it had been the other way around, a tax credit for buying any vehicle that gets more than say, 30mpg, coupled with increased taxes on fuel such that, people who upgraded to significantly more fuel efficient vehicles would still see savings at the pump.

Oops, in 2002 how many vehicles, made in the US would qualify? That makes the 2002 Bucheny tax credit a shortsighted jingoistic move aimed at spurring the sales of behemoths from the big three. Go Bush!

I wonder how many "expensive" PHEVs or EVs could be bought with the money NOT saved (wasted) on such extravagances. As usual the problem with wasting fossil fuels is that once you've burned them, thats it they're gone and so is the money used to buy them. On the other hand electric vehicles can use renewable energy sources, so money spent on an EV is potentially "the gift that keeps on giving".

Even in my neck of the woods the Peak Oil idea is so far from mainstream it's not funny. I still see people driving obviously brand new (2009), full size SUVs and think to myself, if only they knew.

Alan from the islands