Water Cooler 07/20/17 Open Thread: CA Throws Cash At Tesla; Research Calls Global Warming Data Garbage; OR To Tax Bicycles

Perverse Incentives as a Philosophy of Government ?

California’s State Assembly just passed a bill providing an additional three billion in subsidies for electric vehicles most specifically Tesla.

The California state Assembly passed a $3-billion subsidy program for electric vehicles, dwarfing the existing program. The bill is now in the state Senate. If passed, it will head to Governor Jerry Brown, who has not yet indicated if he’d sign what is ostensibly an effort to put EV sales into high gear, but below the surface appears to be a Tesla bailout.

Tesla will soon hit the limit of the federal tax rebates, which are good for the first 200,000 EVs sold in the US per manufacturer beginning in December 2009 (IRS explanation). In the second quarter after the manufacturer hits the limit, the subsidy gets cut in half, from $7,500 to $3,750; two quarters later, it gets cut to $1,875. Two quarters later, it goes to zero.

It would be a rebate handled at the dealer, not a tax credit on the tax return. And it could reach “up to $30,000 to $40,000” per EV, state Senator Andy Vidak, a Republican from Hanford, explained in an emailed statement.

This is how the taxpayer-funded rebates in the “California Electric Vehicle Initiative” (AB1184) would work, according to the Mercury News:

The [California Air Resources Board] would determine the size of a rebate based on equalizing the cost of an EV and a comparable gas-powered car. For example, a new, $40,000 electric vehicle might have the same features as a $25,000 gas-powered car. The EV buyer would receive a $7,500 federal rebate, and the state would kick in an additional $7,500 to even out the bottom line.

—Business Insider

California has a pension plan that’s about to implode it’s ranked 43/50 in terms of financial condition , it has a water system that is still inadequate to deal with the states periodic droughts and calling on FEMA when dams are about to burst isn’t maintenance, it also has more people leaving the state than are being born into it. With all these problems what is their concern ? Putting more money into a kleptocrat’s pockets and making it easier for people with more dollars than sense to virtue signal ? It’s as if the state government is trying to get the taxpayers to tar and feather them.

Global Warming Not a Valid Representation of Reality

Well surprise, surprise, the data driving the conclusions on global warming have been so heavily cooked they are not representing reality.  GAST is the Global Average Surface Temperature Data. The report analyzes the corrections to the data sets. Boiling down the report to key paragraphs.

In this research report, the most important surface data adjustment issues are identified and past changes in the previously reported historical data are quantified.  It was found that each new version of GAST has nearly always exhibited a steeper warming linear trend over its entire history. And, it was nearly always accomplished by systematically removing the previously existing cyclical temperature pattern. This was true for all three entities providing GAST data measurement, NOAA, NASA and Hadley CRU.

The conclusive findings of this research are that the three GAST data sets are not a valid representation of reality. In fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data. Thus, it is impossible to conclude from the three published GAST data sets that recent years have been the warmest ever –despite current claims of record setting warming. Finally, since GAST data set validity is a necessary condition for EPA’s GHG/CO2 Endangerment Finding, it too is invalidated by these research findings.

–Docs Google.Com

Just to put this in perspective, the odds that any given correction to all three data sets should all go either up or down is roughly 1 in 8.  To have it go consistently upwards over the course of the observation is 1 in trillions. Currently we have attorney generals attacking public corporations for the crime of giving America one of the cheapest and most reliable energy supplies in the world. Just when are they going to take the time to go after these con men for this giant act of malfeasance.

If It Moves Tax It

While California is coming up with ways to enhance Tesla’s bottom line, Oregon has decided to tax bicycles. Not to be cynical but it wouldn’t surprise me if CA’s legislators had portfolios heavy in Tesla, while Oregon’s have little if any shares of Schwin.

In Oregon, a state known for its avid bicycling culture, the state Legislature’s approval of the first statewide bike tax in the nation has fallen flat with riders.

Democratic Gov. Kate Brown is expected to sign the sweeping $5.3 billion transportation package, which includes a $15 excise tax on the sale of bicycles costing more than $200 with a wheel diameter of at least 26 inches.

—The Washington Times

Supposedly the tax is to make improvements that will benefit Oregon’s bikers. Well the nature of these things is someone benefits from the improvements and everyone pays for them. Wild idea maybe somehow the state could find a way to let these “improvements” pay for themselves.

Quote of the Day

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

—Ronald Reagan

Drink up That’s it for the Watercooler today. As always it’s an open thread

The post Water Cooler 07/20/17 Open Thread: CA Throws Cash At Tesla; Research Calls Global Warming Data Garbage; OR To Tax Bicycles appeared first on RedState.