But remember what Friedman said. To wit, corporate tax will rise from 21% to 28%, punishing the very folks we hoped would build the new infrastructure in the first place. And even if the government does it for us, who shall then infuse all that bonus juice into our three electrical grids – which, by the way, were mostly built in the ‘50s and ‘60s and cause more power outages than any other developed nation? Our usual sources for generating electricity are coal, nuclear, renewable (roughly 20% each), and natural gas (40%). Fracking makes a mess. Coal is worse. If nuclear is our choice, for which Americans post-Fukushima have little appetite, that positively means the feds will be the builders, via new taxes. You want Elon Musk running a nuclear reactor? At least we’re already collecting gasoline taxes (which must be applied to recharging your Tesla, too), and they currently collect $39 billion annually. So, a start.
hours. Ever try to kill 30 minutes at a Kwik Stop? Our federal government, having once created transcontinental railroads and the interstate highway system, is the most likely candidate to fashion this new recharging infrastructure. Up to now, the feds’ $7,500 rebates have raised EVs’ market share to just beyond 2%. When did 2% last wag the free-enterprise dog? Sometimes it takes presidential decree – in this case, President Joe Biden’s recent American Jobs Plan: $115 billion for bridge and highway repair, $100 billion to bolster the existing electrical grid, $50 billion for added research, and $174 billion for 500,000 recharging pumps by 2030 (that’s roughly four rechargers per existing U.S. gas station). It’s a big deal, because private investors previously knew there weren’t enough EVs to justify their billion-buck throwdowns, and potential EV buyers knew there weren’t enough recharging hubs to justify a $60,000 Polestar 2.
2020 TESLA MODEL S
2020 KIA NIRO EV
American Consequences
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