CARB ZEV Credit Restructuring Leaves Tesla With Fewer Credits

The only way this affects the user/consumer is if it causes a price adjustment on the vehicles. If credits become harder for Tesla and others to aquire, the cost they demand from the manufacturers purchasing them will likely make up for it, so the cost will be handed to the purchasers of brands that suck gas and spew carbon and Tesla drivers will continue to recieve yet another form of government mandated fund transfers. I'm not against the plan, we all live in the atmosphere the Hemi's and Lambo's pump carbon into, not just those of us who enjoy the acceleration.

@05lgt If the credits have any value to the manufacturer, then they likely have an effect on not just the buyers, but even the rest of us. This ridiculous program is assigning value on features instead of letting the market do that. The effect, whether intended or not, is to make the manufacturers pay attention to, and attempt to manipulate, the committee. Ostensibly, the program is intended to create incentives to reducing carbon, not decide the desirability the market should have for faster charge times. The market is almost assuredly a better arbiter of the value of that feature. The brilliant joke on indulgences nailed it, IMO.

@Landcrusher The problem is that pollutants aren't accounted for by the market. But I agree with Luke (see below)--a revenue neutral carbon tax would be better, since it would avoid picking winners. For more on this, from a conservative perspective, see the Energy & Enterprise Institute http://energyandenterprise.com/

@David C. Holzman Hey David, My point isn't to let the market account for pollution on its own, it's to let the market account for features like charging time and range. I am not against a scheme to tax carbon or pollutants in order to make the market react. I am against schemes, such as these, which are simply layering more and more taxes on (carbon tax plus fuel tax), giving bureaucracies power to run our lives (taxing different models or areas of town differently), are ridiculously inefficient or unnecessarily burdening us all with big brother monitoring (GPS schemes).

@David C. Holzman The US and its states tend to pursue supply side approaches such as CAFE and the ZEV credit because levying a demand-side tax provokes the voters. It's fine to gripe about this stuff, but the right needs to understand that these are compromise measures that are meant to appease their anti-tax zeal. If they aren't prepared to offer any viable alternatives of their own, then they ought to stop whining. (And no, claiming that there should be no regulations at all is not an example of a viable alternative.)

@David C. Holzman I like how you are all cozy with the voters when they go your way, but ready to circumvent democracy as soon as they don't. Try giving up on just the most ridiculous redistribution schemes and see if it isn't easy to get things done.

@David C. Holzman Well done. All you did was whine, and not offer any alternatives, while failing to understand that the alternatives that are used were structured like this because of guys like you.

@David C. Holzman An appeal to doing the hard work of coming up with good policies and selling them to the voters rather than crying about how unfair life is and blaming everything on the rich is a "whine"?

@David C. Holzman Climate change is an issue, whether or not you like it. If you don't like the current approaches, then provide a different one that (a) addresses the issue and (b) has a chance to make it through the political system. But acting like a bellowing ostrich who simply denies the issue altogether isn't an option. Don't be surprised when people who are required to deal with it don't bother to listen to you, for you have nothing constructive to contribute.

There are already a wide variety of business interests and tax credits that are traded privately, free of SEC involvement. You may think that all of this stuff is closely regulated, but that isn't close to being the case. But there are very few parties that need ZEV credits, and they're all in auto business. I would presume they talk to each other directly.

There does seem to be a certain arbitrary nature to it all. Your comparison to unregulated securities and derivatives is apt!