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 ...
that’s what I mean..you buy the car out of state, no tax owed..but when you register it the NEXT year, they’ll check their database and THAT’S when you get hit with the tax..
Doesn’t the mileage count for anything?
We have a Suburban that we put only about 5,000 miles a year on. Compare that to someone with an economy car who puts 25,000+ miles a year. Which one pollutes more?
DANGER!!!!
Severe, radical, out-of-control and unrestrained COMMUNISM at work!!!!
I have long claimed that she was exceptionally prescient when she wrote "Atlas Shrugged" and that it is really a blueprint for (what was then the future) what is happening inAmerica today.
We were warned!
You’re right...mileage should count for everything.
I own a ‘03 H2 that I have only put 30,000 miles on.
I VANPOOL to work everyday (round trip 120+ miles.)
Now, who has the smaller “carbon footprint?”
Some tree hugger doofus who puts 40,000 miles per year on his subcompact OR me, who puts 8000 miles per year on a recreational SUV but who also vanpools to work everyday?
I don't think the stinking filthy idiot democrat liberals would argue with that. This is what they want, a penalty for having families that work and earn their own way through life. Illegals will probably get a waiver so they don't have to pay the "surcharge."
They thought of that. From the bill itself:
(a) Any California resident person who purchases a new motor vehicle outside of the state that would otherwise have been subject to an emissions surcharge shall pay the surcharge when the resident person returns to California with the vehicle within 90 days 12 months and registers or is required to register the motor vehicle.
I don't run a SUV, but do run a V-8 powered critter and can see 'extensions' if this initial bill passes...
I’ve seen those bumper stickers. I normally don’t put stickers on my vehicles.
However, I saw one yesterday here in the forum - or it was a suggested bumper sticker I would put on the H2.
“Dear Lord, please help me be the man my dog thinks I am....” or words to that effect.
The high cost of fuel is enough of a tax for the yuppies who think they need an off-road vehicle to go to starbucks everyday. For those who need the hauling and off-road capabilities of an SUV, I understand the purchase. For 90% of SUV owners I don’t. I don’t understand spending more money to get a slower, thirster, worse handling, poorer braking, and poorer riding vehicle. It makes no sense whatsover. Home Depot rents trucks for next to nothing. Use one of those for the one time a year you buy something big.
The law of unintended consequences will once again prevail. When congress passed the CAFE standards they exempted trucks. Trucks are used differently than passenger vehicles and things like load, towing capacity and power are significantly more important to their purpose. The result was that the family station wagon hurt the fleet average of an auto manufacturer, but the SUV (which consumed even more gas) did not, because it fell in the truck category. In other words the interference in the free market by a “do-gooder” nanny congress resulted in more not less gas consumption.
The current proposals at the federal level will further interfere with the market and are infact anti-family. If one has more than two or three children the legal options for family transportation will be limited to expensive SUV’s or perhaps a minivan that is underpowered to meet new standards. Passenger miles as opposed to vehicle miles is not even considered.
The free market will take care of itself if congress, at all levels of government, will stay out. A recent poll shows most want cars that get 40 mpg. Fine- Detroit or Korea will produce one if feasible and those that desire can purchase it. Honda has made one for decades so I guess CIVIC sales will boom. I think however the poll is a little like asking if you would like to win the lottery - a majority will answer yes -but if you were to spread the pot to everyone who wants a share their winnings would total less than the price of a ticket. Its just not feasible, even if there was a law.
America has voted - they like cup-holders, acceleration and room to haul things more than they like 40 MPG.
Only a petty dictator would limit choices, punish production and think to be god over the economy, but then we are talking about CA.
I have those exact stickers on my H2.
However, when we purchased the vehicle my wife insisted that on no bumper stickers. When I found out the real issue was that she didn’t like the mess the bumper stickers leave behind when they fade and crack, I decided to go another route.
Now, I just adhere these bumper stickers onto a soft magnetic sheet. A roll (12” x 24”) of magnetic sheeting costs about $10 at your nearest hobby/craft store.
Both the front and rear bumpers of the H2 are excellent for posting these magnetized bumper stickers onto.
Anyways...happy driving while in Malibu.
It is none of your frickin' business what other people buy with their money, and it is even less of the governments business.
I can't believe people with an attitude like yours would even bother to be on a conservative forum. How the hell do you know which people, or what percentage of them, actually use their vehicles for? And why the hell do you think it is any of your business anyway?
Keep the government out of our lives, vote out liberals, whether they are dems or republicans matters not, if they are liberal they need to get booted out!
‘Anyways...happy driving while in Malibu.’
Thanks. If it happens, we plan on taking the Spider up the Pacific Coast Highway, at least to Big Sur. Figure what the heck, if your already there....
I think you and I talked about this on a hummer thread a couple of weeks back. I’m still laughing at the poster declaring the H2 sucks because of what it takes to put a SNOW PLOW on the front......ROTFL!
I make no apologies for owning my SUV (a Hummer H2 at that.)
And if I want to sit in it while waiting in a Starbucks drive-thru, that is my right and I will not apologize for this either.
I use my SUV mostly as a weekend/fun vehicle. The H2 is (for me) a real pleasure to drive. I have added HP to it with a cat back exhaust and a cold air induction intake. It has lots of power, excellent handling and it is great at tight turns.
If you haven’t driven one, then you just don’t know.
Driving around in my H2 may be a guilty pleasure, but I feel NO GUILT about it.
This is America dammit. I have the right to own and purchase and drive whatever vehicle I like so long as I obey the traffic laws.
While you may not understand some people choosing to spend their money on large, slow moving, “gas guzzling” vehicles, it is their right to purchase these vehicles and they should not be impugned for doing so. After all, America is a FREE country. The phrase “pursuit of happiness” comes to mind here.
Hell...I figure that since I served six years in the U.S. Navy in the 1980s (on a destroyer escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti oil tankers out of the Persian Gulf) I have earned my right to drive around in a “gas guzzler” if I so choose.
Here are some appropriate Ayn Rand quotes to properly put this issue in context:
“The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.”
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”
“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”
“Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.”
One of the best and simplest analogies I have ever read! Kudos!
One of the best and simplest analogies I have ever read! Kudos!
from each according to their ability to each according to their need...
seems the politicians are being a little more blatent about the commie beliefs.
excellent handling”
Compared to a 1965 Buick.
I have nothing against people buying them. They should be allowed to. People should be allowed to buy any foolish thing they want. Doesn’t mean I can’t laugh at them.
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