Posted on 06/07/2007 8:43:38 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Vote due on gas-guzzler fees
By Chris Bowman - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, June 7, 2007
Here's one way to combat global warming: Take $2,500 out of the pockets of new Hummer owners and give it to buyers of the Toyota Prius.
That's essentially the proposal set for a vote today or Friday on the Assembly floor of the California Legislature.
The same body that passed the nation's first law curbing climate-altering or "greenhouse" tailpipe exhausts is debating a system of fees and rebates to coax some of those emission cuts from new car buyers.
The bill by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, is considered one of the top global warming bills of the session.
The measure would require buyers of gas guzzlers, which emit high levels of greenhouse gases, to pay a surcharge of up to $2,500.
The revenue would be used to reward buyers of more fuel-efficient models with rebates of up to $2,500. The measure, Assembly Bill 493, would take effect in the 2011 model year.
"This will change many people's behavior and, more importantly, change the automakers' behavior to make cleaner cars for everybody, which is what they should have been doing all along," said Dan Kalb, policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a public health lobby that is sponsoring the legislation.
Of course, that's not how the automotive lobby sees it.
"This will penalize large families and the working men and women of California who depend on larger vehicles for their way of life," said Charles Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents Detroit automakers and Toyota, among others.
The trade group ran a full-page ad Tuesday in The Bee, urging readers to tell their Assembly representatives to kill the bill, calling it a "car tax."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Professor Walter Williams, an economics professor from George Mason Univeristy and a well known op-ed columnist, has written many times on how government screws up the free market with laws just like this one. These types of laws always have unintended consequences and ends up making life worse for everybody (except the politicians and bureaucrats.)
They can have my SUV when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!
Yes, now that the SF leftists have congress watch out. Here comes Robbin Hood and his merry men a taxing. They say they take from the rich and give to the poor, but don’t forget their on the take and their buddies get a good share of the loot.
Just raise gas taxes there. Same effect but you’d encourage all sorts of high mileage cars, not just hybrids.
Not long before this is applead to steaks and alfalfa sprouts as well.
The Socialistika Republik of Kalifornia strikes again
“applead” = “applied”
When this passes the politicians will be astounded when dealers in Nevada and Arizona suddenly start selling more large SUVs to Californians.
“If only this were a Federal law”, they will sternly announce.
Sound familiar?
Here is a very recent and most excellent column by Professor Walter Williams on this EXACT topic:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56026
“The immorality of government theft”
This is a MUST READ!
Heh. Great graphic. Can you get that on a t-shirt anywhere?
And that's exactly what is happening at the pump, except that the leftards can't figure it out.
This sounds very familiar.
It’s creepy.
This whole thing is eerily familiar to an Ayn Rand plot from one of her novels.
“Atlas Shrugged” really comes to my mind.
Lets destroy what is left of California and keep electing Democrats. How much longer should we tolerate these nut cases. Since when did we elect this nitwits to be behavior police with my choice of what I want to drive.
won’t happen..want to bet the fee will be due when registering it the first time? that way, no matter where you bought the car, you’d owe the tax..
I'm calling it now, this thing, if passed, backfires.
Interesting. I’m most likely going to drive my Hummer to Malibu sometime in the next few weeks with a friend to pick up a ‘Spider’ sportscar replica (James Dean’s death car two seater).
I’ll be sure to wave at the envirowackos while driving the hummer and pulling a large trailer with the other car....(chuckle)
People have been registering cars out of state for years. Where there’s a will (to save $2500) there’s a way.
Of course, knowing CA, they would eventually require the “surcharge” on any large SUV registration, regardless of whether it was new or used.
You can always vote with your feet like I did.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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