Federal subsidies for ebikes lost in new budget

[onemorejoltwarden]

The Budget compromise lost proposed ebike subsidies

Provisions designed to supercharge the sale and use of traditional bikes and the battery-powered variety were dropped from the climate deal reached by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), the Senate’s most conservative Democrat. Bike manufacturers and cycling enthusiasts pushed for months to include the pro-bike provisions in Democrats’ climate package.

Dropped from the deal is a tax credit worth up to $900 to help cyclists purchase electric bikes. Also gone is a pretax benefit for commuters to help cover the cost of biking to work. Versions of both benefits were included in the roughly $2 trillion spending package that passed the House last year.

The proposed commuter benefit for bikers, which Republicans repealed in 2017, would be similar to a perk many employees already get for taking a car or subway to work.

Source
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/02/electric-bikes-incentives-cyclists-climate-deal/
may be paywalled

 

[nicobie]

Now that's a damn shame, but expected.

 

[Comrade]

If there are any subsidies it should be for lawn care equipment. Much better bang for the buck.

They may look pretty innocuous -- those leaf blowers, hedge trimmers and gas mowers wielded by a small army of gardening crews across the state.
Yes, really, there will be more pollution from gas-powered gardening equipment than from cars.

They’re not.

According to state air quality officials, those machines are some of the biggest polluters in California. In fact, by 2020, leaf blowers and other small gas engines will create more ozone pollution than all of the passenger cars in the state.

Yes, really, there will be more pollution from gas-powered gardening equipment than from cars, confirms Michael Benjamin, division chief at the California Air Resources Board.

“We expect that ozone-contributing pollutants from small off-road engines will exceed those same emissions from cars around the 2020 time frame,” says Benjamin.

 

[donn]

Good point about lawn care equipment, but for me, the subsidy should be for domestic production facilities. Be it batteries, complete bicycles, motors, controllers, the US could be producing some of that stuff.

When you give people more money to buy things that are in limited supply, their ability to pay more is very likely to quickly turn into the sellers' ability to charge more for the same thing. If the money's eventually going to China, not a good use of public funds.