Dayhoff Soundtrack: Washington Post editorial board: Overcharged

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Washington Post editorial board: Overcharged - Pull the plug on electric-car subsidies

Overcharged

Congress declined to renew either the 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit for corn-based ethanol or the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol, so both expired Dec. 31.

By Editorial Board, Published: January 1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/overcharged/2011/12/30/gIQAzQ0yUP_story.html

THERE MAY NOT have been a party in Times Square to celebrate, but two of the most wasteful subsidies ever to clutter the Internal Revenue Code went out with the old year. Congress declined to renew either the 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit for corn-based ethanol or the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol, so both expired Dec. 31.

Taxpayers will no longer have shell out roughly $6 billion per year for a program that badly distorted the global grain market, artificially raised the cost of agricultural land and did almost nothing to curb greenhouse gas emissions. A federal law requiring the use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol for fuel by 2022 still props up the industry, but the tax credit’s expiration is a victory for common sense just the same.... http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/overcharged/2011/12/30/gIQAzQ0yUP_story.html

Meanwhile, a lesser-known but equally dubious energy tax break also expired when the year ended Saturday: the credit that gave electric-car owners up to $1,000 to defray the cost of installing a 220-volt charging device in their homes — or up to $30,000 to install one in a commercial location... http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/overcharged/2011/12/30/gIQAzQ0yUP_story.html

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