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Hell with saving the rich, the number of carve outs that benefit only the wealthy under the guise of protecting the environment should catch your ire instead.

Hell with saving the rich, the number of carve outs that benefit only the wealthy under the guise of protecting the environment should catch your ire instead. instead of funding EVs and solar panels for those well off enough to pay for them we should be directing the same money to covering schools in solar panels and replacing petrol school buses. just saying, there is outrage when it comes to government expenditures in every direction but people tend to only focus on what upsets them now. (but to your point, public employee unions are just political slush funds in disguise and you will be bailing them all out soon)

ericd 6y ago
Well, if your goal is to cover everything in solar, tax rebates to the rich cause the rich to pay 2/3 of the cost instead of none of the cost of your school example. So you end up with 3x the solar deployed for the same amount of government money. Then again, solar is a productive asset, so maybe it’s still better for the government to retain it.
StillBored 6y ago
Solar panels, and EV's are pocket change to the property tax breaks given to people holding tens/hundreds of millions in property in the name of preservation. I would love to have huge ranch on some of the most prime lakefront property in texas 15 mins from downtown Austin and pay a tiny fraction of what my neighbors do for a tiny fraction of the land. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tax-day-farms-owned-rich-provide-massive-tax-shelter/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tax-day-farms-owne... I'm all for greespace preservation, but if someone is getting an exception for not developing their land, then it should be open to the public as green space. edit: (and I should point out the property valuation of the dell ranch in that article is way out of wack with the fact that adjacent housing subdivisions are having their 1/4 acre lots valued in the 200k range for taxing purposes. So turning it into a subdivision would put the just the land value in excess of a billion $ for taxing purposes.)
chrisjarvis 6y ago
I like this sentiment but just wanted to add that school buses are one of if not the most efficient vehicles on the road (obviously when you divide emissions by a full bus of people) so this is arguably not a good place for an environmental crusade.
- pedrocr 6y ago
  CO2 per passenger or cargo mile is not what we're optimizing. We want CO2 reduction per dollar spent. Converting high usage vehicles is better for that.
Nasrudith 6y ago
The point of subsidies is to increase scale if spending for the industry. People with the disposable income to buy it are a multiplier of total demand. It also helps build up consumer facing business practices towards that end vs just effectively being a government contractor.

ericd 6y ago

Well, if your goal is to cover everything in solar, tax rebates to the rich cause the rich to pay 2/3 of the cost instead of none of the cost of your school example. So you end up with 3x the solar deployed for the same amount of government money. Then again, solar is a productive asset, so maybe it’s still better for the government to retain it.

StillBored 6y ago

Solar panels, and EV's are pocket change to the property tax breaks given to people holding tens/hundreds of millions in property in the name of preservation. I would love to have huge ranch on some of the most prime lakefront property in texas 15 mins from downtown Austin and pay a tiny fraction of what my neighbors do for a tiny fraction of the land. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tax-day-farms-owned-rich-provide-massive-tax-shelter/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tax-day-farms-owne... I'm all for greespace preservation, but if someone is getting an exception for not developing their land, then it should be open to the public as green space. edit: (and I should point out the property valuation of the dell ranch in that article is way out of wack with the fact that adjacent housing subdivisions are having their 1/4 acre lots valued in the 200k range for taxing purposes. So turning it into a subdivision would put the just the land value in excess of a billion $ for taxing purposes.)

chrisjarvis 6y ago

I like this sentiment but just wanted to add that school buses are one of if not the most efficient vehicles on the road (obviously when you divide emissions by a full bus of people) so this is arguably not a good place for an environmental crusade.

pedrocr 6y ago
CO2 per passenger or cargo mile is not what we're optimizing. We want CO2 reduction per dollar spent. Converting high usage vehicles is better for that.

Nasrudith 6y ago

The point of subsidies is to increase scale if spending for the industry. People with the disposable income to buy it are a multiplier of total demand. It also helps build up consumer facing business practices towards that end vs just effectively being a government contractor.