Helpful Advice

"Fed up with higher gas prices? Get over it."

We understand that for many people $3 a gallon is painful — especially lower-wage earners with older, bigger cars that get poor gas mileage. But help is on the way in cleaner-burning cars with tax incentives to bring down their price.

Ford just provided some welcome and telling evidence of that. It’s building an all-electric F-150 truck for 2022. So we won’t have to give up popular pickups to help ease climate change.

As part of his “Build Back Better” spending plan that recently cleared the House, Biden hopes to offer up to $12,500 per electric vehicle to spur consumer demand.

Hear that, low wage workers? If the President's agenda passes, which will drive inflation to unheard of new heights, you'll get $12,500 off the new electric vehicle you won't be able to afford. Base price is north of $39,000.

Don't get me wrong -- the new electric Ford may well be great. Electric trucks are outperforming expectations. There's still the huge issue of much of that electricity being generated by burning coal or fuel oil, but in places where hydropower is widely available -- like here -- it might be a viable choice for those who can drop tens of thousands of dollars on a new vehicle. The range is looking respectable, and there is plenty of power in that model. 

It's not going to solve the problem of lower-wage earners dying on the vine as inflation eats their wages, though. Those subsidies are not going to enable poor people to buy a brand new truck. The BBB agenda will only worsen their problems, should it pass, by further driving costs for necessities through the roof. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's the second and third order effects that the politicians are ignoring so intently. "Keep fossil fuels in the ground!" So, no natural gas, which is used to make inexpensive nitrogen fertilizer, which is needed by the high-performance grain hybrids. No plastics, so back to glass IV bottles and no more easy-to-transport saline or blood products, and IV tubing? Well . . .

Which is small change compared to the rising price of food and fuel and other things.

LittleRed1

David Foster said...

Buttigieg said that if you have an electric car, you'll never have to worry about gas prices again.

Wrong! Given that so much electricity is made in gas-fired plants, you'll need to worry about *natural gas* prices, which will have a big impact on you electric bill.