{"id":1468,"date":"2005-07-21T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-21T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sustainablog.greenoptions.com\/2005\/07\/21\/the-state-of-subsidies\/"},"modified":"2005-07-21T15:40:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-21T15:40:00","slug":"the-state-of-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/the-state-of-subsidies\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of Subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"
There’s a very interesing discussion going on at Ezra Klein in response to a post<\/a> on subsidies for hybrid technology (which seems to be moving in the direction of increasing “muscle” as opposed to improving fuel efficiency). Ezra believes a subsidy for fuel efficiency itself is the best approach; some of his readers believe a gas tax holds more potential for changing behavior. I have to wonder if this isn’t simply an argument between those who prefer a carrot vs. those who like a stick — both options, it seems to me, would push the market towards developing and selling more fuel-efficient cars while leaving lots of flexibility on how to do it. The gas tax might<\/em> have the added bonus of raising demand for public transportation, but in our suburban culture, I have to wonder if that demand would be high enough to push mass transit further up on the list of priorities.<\/p>\n Technorati tags: fuel efficiency<\/a>, hybrid<\/a>, automobile<\/a>, subsidies<\/a>, taxes<\/a><\/p>\n