From the Fox News article:Vice President Joe Biden, during a visit Tuesday to a Delaware automotive assembly plant, unwittingly revealed startup manufacturer Fisker Automotive's undisclosed plans to produce a full line of plug-in hybrid vehicles at the facility.I think the operative word here is unwittingly; and couldn't we just characterize all of Biden's comments with that adverb?
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It makes a lot of sense to subsidize electric sports cars. A large investment is needed to get this technology going that will ultimately benefit all of us. The government can put up part of that, but by building expensive sports cars, you also get a bunch of rich people to help subsidize this investment. Another way to do it would be to get the Army to build electric vehicles of some kind. That way the necessary investment would be buried in the Defense budget and conservatives probably would not complain so much.
ReplyDeleteJoe,
ReplyDeleteI have two problems with this line of reasoning. First, only well connected ex-politicians need apply for these subsidies, so how do we know that the best technical approach was chosen?
Second, how do we know that electric cars are the right technology? Maybe fuel cells are better, or flywheels or maybe we could actually reduce the carbon footprint with more fuel efficient gasoline engines than the ones we have now. I have no faith in the government's ability to pick winners and losers. Better to put a carbon tax in place and let investors who stand to lose or make money figure it out. Investors are always more likely than government to pick good technology. Further, our taxes won't get wasted.
A link is on the way!
ReplyDelete