Thanks for posting that
@willow_hiller
Understandably our thoughts naturally turn to Tesla and which EV vehicles might be eligible. But this post from
@StarFoxisDown! in combination with the post from
@willow_hiller should bring most of us back around to what much of this bill might be about given the years of discussion by so many on TMC on this subject:
The Devils are likely in the details. "Section 13401 removes the cap on EV credits and makes
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles eligible. " (note no mention of 'Green Hydrogen-only' and pricing limits that are restrictive to the most efficient and subsequently cleanest 'made in America' EV's). Is anyone surprised at this. And the real 'Not So Funny-but Really Sneaky' part of this is that while everyone favoring a future that still uses cheap fossil fuels will soon be angrily shouting about all the new EV taxes imposed them, we might all soon be taxed to preserve and grow the natural gas and coal industries to accelerate the Grey (natural gas-generated) and Brown (coal generated) Hydrogen industries and all of the fleet industries that will be supporting over-the-road hydrogen transportation. Machiavellian Politics at its finest! "Hey, look over there.........it's their fault this is happening."
BTW, isn't there both coal and a Toyota plant in Manchin's home state? And hasn't a hydrogen powered semi (that could of course be powered from Brown Hydrogen) been a goal of Toyota for some time?
And hasn't the Northeast been rather quietly pushing for a hydrogen-powered corridor for sometime already?
But nobody knows quite what that means yet.
grist.org
And haven't there been a 'fleet' of articles (pun intended) written about different semi manufacturers proposing new hydrogen semi trucks very recently? (Daimler, Hyundai, Volvo, etc)
I hereby propose we now refer to the latest form of the BBB bill as the '
Build Back Browner' bill.
Yes, new taxes are coming. EV's will be the scapegoat and the Existing Paradigm will be the winner once again. Yet while this might now be able to be conveniently blamed on Manchin, let's not lose sight that this administration, and some of the most power Democrats have been arguably lock-step with the Republicans in unwinding most of the good in the original Green New Deal over the past couple years. It is simply a red-herring when any media source on either side of the aisle still refers to it as the Green New Deal, as it has been stripped of so much of its original intentions opportunities for existing grid owners to control the future grid and to find a path for continued expansion of our fossil fuel industries in the process - particularly natural gas and coal. Other discussions on TMC over the past handful of years that seem relevant to the new version of the Build Back Browner Bill IIRC included Pelosi's refusal to discuss the details of the Green New Deal in its original form, Gov Newsom's proposal to use Utah natural gas on the California grid following LA's successful bid of $0.019/kWh for a grid-scale solar project, and of course the previous administration's relentless efforts to keep 'Clean Coal' in the news. And of course it was only a couple weeks ago that Elon once again hit back at Bill Gates over his relentless push towards a hydrogen-powered future. As usual, with a little patience we sometimes find that Elon was perhaps in-the-know about debates at a higher level, and simply reminding the rest of the world what might be going on behind the scenes - you know, those 'Devils' that are in the Details:
Elon Musk on Thursday reacted with a “laughing hysterically” emoji to a tweet that mocked Bill Gates’ touting of hydrogen energy.
nypost.com
p.s. Leaving this reference here for a little bit more on Brown and Grey Hydrogen if anyone is interested.........and we all should be since >90% of US hydrogen comes from fossil fuel sources and the 35% methane emissions from Grey Hydrogen production is 100x more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 is.
