A Romney Presidency: A “Minor Impact” On America’s Electric Car Market?

GAS-2 ^ | August 2, 2012 | Andrew Meggison

[Cincinatus' Wife]

If elected President, presumptive GOP nominee Willard Mitt Romney said he would sell off the American governments 26% share in General Motors (GM), take a hard look at pending fuel efficiency mandates as well as electric vehicle (EV) subsidies. That not all. Romney said he would review the pending Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandates slated to put the auto industry on course toward a 54.5 mile per gallon fleet wide average by 2025.

Even so, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk isn’t worried. Should he be?

Romney’s approach to the auto market? Hands off. In fact, Romney says if he had been President, he would not have bailed out the auto industry. He has also said CAFE is not such a good idea and represents intrusion into the free market by the Obama led government (even though George W. introduced his own CAFE standards ahead of Obama). “The best approach is to try and build vehicles that people want, rather than having the government telling the companies what they must make,” Romney said to the Detroit News.

That being said, Elon Musk chief executive officer (CEO) of Tesla Motors said that a Romney presidency would have a “minor impact” on America’s EV market. Musk claims that there is a strong EV following, and Tesla’s goal with the Model S is push EVs further into the mainstream. Simply put, Musk thinks people want EVs and will buy them.

Romney has singled out Tesla and the troubled Fisker Automotive Inc., which also got federal tax payer loans to develop EVs as examples of poor policy decisions by President Obama’s administration. In a March 19th speech at the University of Chicago, Romney called both Tesla and Fisker examples of “crony capitalism”, even though Tesla just recently announced it plans to begin repaying its government loans early.

It seems likely that a CEO of an EV company would brush off the potentially negative impact of a Romney presidency on their market. After all, the polls show that Romney and Obama are running very close. Additionally, the job reports are not improving under Obama and the clock is ticking down to November rapidly. No CEO is going to talk poorly about their companies or an industries chance of survival or bite the presidential hand that feeds them in a scenario such as this. They want to reassure consumers of their product while keeping the door open to dealing with, perhaps, a new presidential administration.

How much a Romney presidency will impact the EV market is really anyone’s guess – although it seems clear that four more years of Obama certainly would not hurt it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

No CEO is going to talk poorly about their companies or an industries chance of survival or bite the presidential hand that feeds them in a scenario such as this. They want to reassure consumers of their product while keeping the door open to dealing with, perhaps, a new presidential administration.

Elon Musk's (and extend family's) businesses built with the help of tax funded money:

Tesla Motors (elec cars)

Solar City (solar panels)

Space X (rocket launch)

[OldEarlGray]

[Willard Mitt Romney said he would sell off the American governments 26% share in General Motors ]

To who — the Communist Chinese Capitalists?

And remember Mythsters - NO SLEEPING IN BEDS! err {edit} WIF SHEETS!

[conservative98]

I hope Romney and Congress can eliminate CAFE. Not just look at it.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This article is worded like a hit piece but it doesn’t explain why cutting taxpayer subsidies to EV producers is a bad thing. I suspect it could be used as effective Romney campaign literature.

[palmer]

Solar City does not make solar panels, China makes them. What Solar City does is sign people up to buy crappy Chinese panels in exchange for government and ratepayer subsidies (paid by the rest of us) that generate electricity when it is not needed, and not lowering by one iota the amount of fossil fuel used (the boilers under the generators need to stay hot for daily post solar use). The best that can be said for solar is that it is not as bad as wind.

Once the cheap solar panels have broken in about 20 years, the victims of Solar City's scam will still be on the hook for the payments.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It is a Romney hit piece.

The author:

“About Andrew Meggison - Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail.”

[Real Cynic No More]

Keeping boilers hot or heating them up just before they’re needed uses less fuel than continuously making electricity. Lets not make false arguments to defend our positions. They can easily be shot down.

[Lakeshark]

What a socialist.

He's just the same as Bambi....../s

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Then too, I would imagine Solar City gets “carbon credit” deductions on their corporate tax returns.

[palmer]

Yep, they even say that they keep all the credits and the customer gets nothing but a payment plan.

[palmer]

It’s true that there is less fossil fuel used, but heating up boilers takes many hours. Germany is moving back to coal after tilting at windmills and subsidizing solar as much as 50 cents a kWh wholesale. Anything more than a few percent of penetration with intermittent sources requires hot standby power. That means the same amount of fossil fuel use. Putting in a few percent solar and wind (other than Texas which is a special case) is not going to reduce fossil fuel use by more than a trivial amount.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I read Solar City got a lot of government contracts. Those solar panel rental contracts will make Musk a very rich man (and politicians rolling in campaign dough).

City of Sacramento and SolarCity Announce Plan to Install Solar Power at City Hall and Three Other Sites

Red, white and solar: 160,000 military buildings to get rooftop arrays

[bill1952]

>To who — the Communist Chinese Capitalists?

To whoM...
No naysayer, to private enterprise - ever hear of it?
That is where it BELONGS. Remember?

Sorry, but Romney is sounding better and better to this voters who did not pull the lever for him in the primaries..

[OldEarlGray]

>>No naysayer, to private enterprise - ever hear of it?

Like the Communist Chinese Capitalists BAIN and the McCapitalists sold the (Formerly)American AMC Theaters to?

That kind of “Free” enterprise?

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=bain+capital+amc+entertainment+Chinese&;

“Ooops”.

NO SALE.

[palmer]

I have a couple of solar panels, but I also have batteries in the crawl space. Without power storage, solar is just a leech on the power grid. Solar City and their scam victims are being paid full retail (not wholesale) price for their power before subsidies are added. The power they generate is non-peak and should be a lower wholesale price than peak power.

When my grid power fails, I switch my fridge to battery backup and can run all incidental things like some lights, computers and internet. The rest of my power needs like pumping well water are too much for my small system. In winter I use wood heat which requires no grid power.

But my solar and battery system is a toy. If I wanted cost effective backup power I would simply buy a small generator.

[Beagle8U]

” In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail.”

I'm sure that liberal speak for “creative cocktail” =

Four queers in a hot tub with ‘Andy’ jumping in wearing olives for ear rings.

[OldEarlGray]

>>Sorry, but Romney is sounding better and better to this voters

 

"This voters" Mr. Grammar Nazi?  Tsk Tsk.

 

"The Idiot, thought to its logical conclusion, leads to a matriarchy of the unconscious and annihilates culture. It does not break the tables of the law, it reverses them and shows their opposites written on the back."

--Thoughts on The Idiot, by Dostoevsky
--Hermann Hesse, 1919
http://www.gss.ucsb.edu/projects/hesse/works/idiot.pdf

 

"What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.

It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages.

 

The first stage being "demoralization".

 

It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least 3 generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism."

--KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov

--Soviet Subversion of the Free Press (Ideological subversion, Destabilization, CRISIS - and the KGB)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2095202/posts

 

Are we there yet?

"The [my] only connection [to the Republican Party]is I'm registered as a Republican" --Mitt RRRRRomney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbXdOCQQMs

[Frankss]

FORD makes a diesel powered Focus for the European market that gets 67 MPG. They do not sell it in USA for some reason.

[trebb]

Are we there yet?

You certainly seem to be "there". I find it demoralizing that so many hate Romney to the point that even when he talks with Constitutional relevance, those who profess to support the Constitution will find fault. You have become a defeatist with no plan to regain the Freedoms we have been hemorrhaging.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Elon-Musk-Shows-Us-How-to-Thrive-in-the-Government-Directed-Economy