[Obamacar 2022] It's possible no electric vehicles will qualify for the new tax credit

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

There is no grace period, so credits effectively end once the bill is
signed.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/08/its-possible-no-electric-vehicles-
will-qualify-for-the-new-tax-credit/

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 passed the United States Senate on
Sunday and heads to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to
pass easily. It contains numerous changes to the tax code, meant in large
part to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Among these is a revision to the existing tax credit for new plug-in
electric vehicles. As we detailed last week, the IRA introduces income
caps for the tax credit, and it will only apply to sedans that cost less
than $55,000 and other EVs that cost less than $80,000. The bill also
drops the 200,000 vehicle-per-OEM cap on the tax credit, which would
benefit both General Motors and Tesla.

At least it will if their EV batteries are mostly made within North
America, with at least 40 percent of the materials used having been
extracted and processed within North America or a country with a free
trade agreement. Now, instead of being based on battery capacity, half the
credit ($3,750) is tied to where the pack is made, and the other half its
supply chain. And that will be a problem if you're looking to buy an EV in
2023.

Automakers and battery companies are starting to build factories in North
America. In addition to Tesla's Nevada site, GM and LG Chem are building
batteries in Ohio, with Ford and Volkswagen using SK cells made in
Georgia. More plants are in the works: Ford and SK are building plants in
Kentucky and Tennessee, to name a couple, with US battery plants also in
the works at Stellantis and Volkswagen, among others. So some EVs may
qualify for at least half the full $7,500 credit, depending upon how the
value of the battery is determined.

"Ultimately, a lot will also depend on guidance that will have to be
issued by IRS. At first glance, it appears that almost no cars will
qualify, but some might end up squeaking in," Sam Abuelsamid, principal
research analyst at Guidehouse Insights, told Ars. Without knowing more,
it's impossible to be definitive about which EVs will qualify for at least
$3,750, but the list may include the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the locally
produced Volkswagen ID.4s, GM EVs that use its new Ultium cells, and
Teslas that use cells from Nevada.

But it's probably more straightforward regarding the other half of the
credit. Even if these domestic battery plants increase the US's share of
battery manufacturing, at least 40 percent of the critical chemicals that
go into those cells must be extracted and processed locally, a percentage
which will escalate by 10 percent each year.

Right now, North America doesn't have the ability to handle that
production—about two-thirds of the world's lithium, much of its cobalt,
and almost all its graphite are processed in China.

Domestic recycling of lithium-ion batteries will provide one local source
of battery materials, and the US contains lithium deposits that have yet
to be exploited. Automakers like GM were already trying to source as much
as possible locally, but globally there's a race to secure contracts for
future production, which might limit their choices.

Once the bill has been signed into law by President Biden, it's up to the
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to issue guidance on how the
new rules will be interpreted. That includes how one's income will be
determined in the case of a point-of-sale rebate and the manufacturing
value of a battery.

That has to happen no later than the end of 2022, and there is no grace
period once the guidance is issued. But if you have a binding contract to
buy a new EV by the time the law is passed, but hasn't been delivered yet,
it should still qualify for the old tax credit.

"The manufacturing tax credits and grant funding will help accelerate the
domestic industrial base conversion currently underway. Unfortunately, the
EV tax credit requirements will make most vehicles immediately ineligible
for the incentive. That's a missed opportunity at a crucial time and a
change that will surprise and disappoint customers in the market for a new
vehicle. It will also jeopardize our collective target of 40-50 percent
electric vehicle sales by 2030," said John Bozzella, president and CEO of
the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.



--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: sf.n...@mail.house.gov

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/09/us-climate-bill-fossil-
fuel-harm-environment-biden

The landmark climate legislation passed by the Senate after months of
wrangling and weakening by fossil-fuel friendly Democrats will lead to
more harm than good, according to frontline community groups who are
calling on Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.

If signed into law, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) would
allocate $369bn to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and invest in
renewable energy sources – a historic amount that scientists estimate will
lead to net reductions of 40% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.

Senator Bernie Sanders proposed amendments to the bill to expand its
healthcare and financial assistance provisions. Those changes were
defeated.
Democrats celebrate as climate bill moves to House – and critics weigh in
Read more
It would be the first significant climate legislation to be passed in the
US, which is historically responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions
than any other country.

But the bill makes a slew of concessions to the fossil fuel industry,
including mandating drilling and pipeline deals that will harm communities
from Alaska to Appalachia and the Gulf coast and tie the US to planet-
heating energy projects for decades to come.

“Once again, the only climate proposal on the table requires that the
communities of the Gulf south bear the disproportionate cost of national
interests bending a knee to dirty energy – furthering the debt this
country owes to the South,” said Colette Pichon Battle from Taproot Earth
Vision (formerly Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy).

“Solving the climate crisis requires eliminating fossil fuels, and the
Inflation Reduction Act simply does not do this,” said Steven Feit, senior
attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (Ciel).

Overall, many environmental and community groups agree that while the deal
will bring some long-term global benefits by cutting greenhouse gas
emissions, it’s not enough and consigns communities already threatened by
sea level rise, floods and extreme heat to further misery.

The bill is a watered-down version of Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better
bill which was blocked by every single Republican and also conservative
Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have both received
significant campaign support from fossil fuel industries. West Virginia’s
Manchin, in particular, is known for his close personal ties to the coal
sector.

“This was a backdoor take-it-or-leave-it deal between a coal baron and
Democratic leaders in which any opposition from lawmakers or frontline
communities was quashed. It was an inherently unjust process, a deal which
sacrifices so many communities and doesn’t get us anywhere near where we
need to go, yet is being presented as a saviour legislation,” said Jean
Su, energy justice program director at the Center for Biological
Diversity.

The IRA, which includes new tax provisions to pay for the historic $739bn
climate and healthcare spending package, has been touted as a huge victory
for the Biden administration as the Democrats gear up for a tough ride in
the midterm elections, when they face losing control of both houses of
Congress.

The spending package will expedite expansion of the clean energy industry,
and while it includes historic funds to tackle air pollution and help
consumers go green through electric vehicle and household appliance
subsidies, the vast majority of the funds will benefit corporations.

A cost-benefit analysis by the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), which
represents a wide range of urban and rural groups nationwide, concludes
that the strengths of the IRA are outweighed by the bill’s weaknesses and
threats posed by the expansion of fossil fuels and unproven technologies
such as carbon capture and hydrogen generation – which the bill will
incentivise with billions of dollars of tax credits that will mostly
benefit oil and gas.

“Climate investments should not be handcuffed to corporate subsidies for
fossil fuel development and unproven technologies that will poison our
communities for decades,” said Juan Jhong-Chung from the Michigan
Environmental Justice Coalition, a member of the CJA.

The IRA is a huge step towards creating a green capitalist industry that
wrongly assumes the economic benefits will trickle down to low-income
communities and households, added Su.

Many advocacy groups agree that the IRA should be the first step – not the
final climate policy – for Biden, who promised to be the country’s first
climate president.

People vs Fossil Fuels, a national coalition of more than 1,200
organisations from all 50 states, recently delivered a petition with more
than 500,000 signatures to the White House calling on Biden to declare a
climate emergency, which would unlock new funds for urgently needed
climate adaptation in hard-hit communities, and use executive actions to
stop the expansion of fossil fuels.

Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living
Arctic, said: “This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it.
This is a life or death situation and the longer we act as though the
world isn’t on fire around us, the worse our burns will be. Biden has the
power to prevent this, to mitigate the damage.”