From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:
We like Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) and his normally foward-thinking attitude about technology. However, Neylon’s latest “green” proposal is a step backwards.
Neylon and his fellow Assembly Republicans are trying to outbid Gov. Tony Evers on creating charging stations for electric cars, a part of an “Earth Day” plan to have more government intervention in subsidizing renewable energy.
According to the Associated Press:
One bill would create a partnership with a private vendor to set up charging stations for electric vehicles along Wisconsin highways. The proposal would use $10 million from settlement dollars the state is set to receive from Volkswagen. Wisconsin is set to receive $67 million over the next decade from the car manufacturer to offset pollution.
Neylon told Wisconsin Public Radio that the charging stations would first be placed along I-94 to serve tourists from Illinois and Minnesota.
“It’ll be close to the freeway and it’ll give them a fast charge so they can get in, charge up and be out and on their way in less than a half hour,” Neylon told WPR.
Bizarrely, Neylon tried claiming this was the free market at work.
“Bizarrely, Neylon tried claiming this was the free market at work. “What this package of bills aim to do is provide market-based solutions to help encourage more renewable energy, more clean energy in Wisconsin,” Neylon told WPR.”
Bizarrely, Mr. Wigderson misconstrues “Market-Based Solution” as “Free Market”. They are not even remotely close to being synonyms.
“There is nothing “market-based” about the plan, except the government intervening in the marketplace to further subsidize electric cars.”
Man, he’s going to be upset to hear about government intervening in the marketplace with those oil and gas subsidies everyone making this same argument ignores. What exactly does Mr. Wigderson think is market-based? He conveniently fails to explain why he thinks the proposal isn’t market-based. Gotta take his word for it, I guess. Him being an expert in… wait… his background’s not in economics? Huh.
The Government sees a need that’s not being filled by private industry and it’s using extra funds from a windfall to fill that need and maybe encourage its growth. There is no detriment to the current market. No new taxes are being levied. No industry or business will be adversly effected by this move. Now, if Mr. Wigderson is upset that this move could lead to or encourage greater competition between electric vehicles and petrol-based vehicles… then I wonder what Mr. Wigderson has against a greater diversity within the marketplace? Greater Diversity is, afterall, necessary for a healthy, robust economy. We wouldn’t want to be like Venezuela, right? That’s what Conservative keep telling me, afterall.
“Ironically, the idea comes at the same time that many Assembly Republicans are also supportive of raising the gas tax because, they claim, more fuel-efficient cars and electric cars are not contributing enough to the transportation fund at the current level of fuel taxation.”
Ironically, this isn’t an example of irony. Adding these charging stations isn’t going to positively or negatively effect the amount of gas tax the State is collecting. There’s no irony. Now if we were talking about sales tax, I imagine these charging stations will have a positive effect on sales tax collection if it does encourage people from out of State to visit.
“So we’re going to take money from a lawsuit against Volkswagen because they lied about the fuel efficiency of their vehicles to subsidize a mode of transportation that is already heavily subsidized by the government, and legislators are going to falsely claim this is a market solution? Does Volkswagen get to sue Neylon to get their money back?”
I think the actual irony here is that this fellow doesn’t recognize the actual irony of arguing about the subsidy while being (intentionally?) oblivious to the other subsidy he benefits from.
“Here’s an idea: take the money from the Volkswagen lawsuit and use it to fix the roads the electric cars are using without paying for the upkeep. ”
I imagine that’s what the increase in the gas tax will be paying for.
“While we’re at it, let’s take a few dollars and get Neylon a copy of Free Markets for Dummies.”
Speaking of irony.