Trump intervenes to kill EV tax break extension for Tesla and GM

It’s the end of the year and Washington DC is abuzz with end-of-year tax package proposals. One of special interest to us who care about electric vehicles is the Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now act (The GREEN Act) which “extends current renewable energy tax incentives and creates new models to increase the use of green energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions” according to backers. Among the items was one which would have raised the sales level at which EV tax credits phase out.

Under current rules any manufacturer selling more than 200,000 electric cars will see the tax credit for their cars decline. Both Tesla and General Motors have hit this limit, affecting tax credits they can offer. By raising the threshold, Tesla and GM would have been able to again offer a $7,500 federal tax credit.

According to a Bloomberg News report, the White House personally weighed in on this measure. The report claims White House staff is incensed over the EV tax credits, seeing it as mainly benefiting California and Tesla in particular. Others are quoted describing the EV tax credits as welfare for liberals.

A proposal championed by Michigan Senator Stabenow, and Republican Senators Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Susan Collins of Maine, would have increased the threshold from 200,000 cars to 400,000 electric cars sold.

In the Bloomberg report, Senator Stabenow is quoted saying “There has been extreme resistance from the president,” and “I don’t know why the White House would want to stop jobs and the future of the auto industry.”

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About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.