"But I agree legislative assistance can hasten adoption of new technologies. But that assistance must be tied to requirements that benefit the public since it is their money. In the case of Tesla, they received at least a $465 million dollar loan, yes it was paid back. But the loan should have been tied to requirements that vehicles be produced and sold at an amount that would allow sale prices to be at a level to allow amln average buyer to acquire, no subsidies. It is ridiculous that we funded Tesla and now that company makes a mint while the Federal government continues to put thousands of dollars in the pockets of Musk and others before him.
The government is in an ideal position to fund innovation but it has to assure it owns a piece of the results forever to fund new innovation. This would basically give the Federal government, and by extension the public, a stake in the company after loans are paid back and should be in perpetuity. We funded Tesla and other companies who needed the help and that is a good thing. Letting the money continue to flow from government to private companies, bad thing. And if the better mouse trap is available and reasonable in price, the world will beat a path to the door."
Sorry, I am not a fan of this idea. China and similar governments like this idea though.
Maybe a better idea would be for the gov. to be given a certain number of stock shares per $$ invested - to be put into a fund that under no circumstances can be touched or used or managed by politicians and the money can ONLY be used to pay down gov. debt by selling the shares on the open market in 3/5/10 year cycles.
Couple that with a balanced budget amendment and we might have something.
EV incentives that the gov. offers to purchasers is also a terrible idea - as the price of the vehicle goes up almost dollar for dollar the amount of the incentive.
Maybe a better tax incentive would be an amount of the price of a home charging station - and you get it whether you install a charger or not.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. "