This great article by Steven Milloy over at JunkScience.com exposes John McCain’s plan to give auto manufacturers a tax credit of $5000 for every zero emissions vehicle they sell. This was proposed as part of his other gimimck to award $300 million of taxpayer money to the person that comes up with the next generation of electric cars. Milloy exposes McCain’s proposals as a giant taxpayer ripoff. Here’s his assessment:

“…when you do the math, McCain?s proposal turns out to be little more than a taxpayer rip-off in favor of ZEV
makers.   Given that the average car emits about 6 tons of CO2 annually and has a lifetime of about 9 years, replacing a
regular car with a ZEV would eliminate about 54 tons of tailpipe CO2 emissions. With the tax credit, this works out
to taxpayers paying ZEV makers about $92.60 per ton of tailpipe CO2 emissions avoided.”

Milloy then goes on to point out that the government could purchase carbon credits for about $5.30 per ton on the Chicago Climate Exchange. I guess this would be McCain’s version of the $1000 hammers.

Milloy continues:
 
“Adding insult to injury, is the illusory nature of ZEVs…While CO2
wouldn?t be emitted from ZEVs, it would be emitted from the smokestacks of the power plants supplying the
electricity used to charge ZEV batteries.”
 

Lastly, Milloy goes after McCain for his proposal to have the government use more fuel efficient vehicles, explaining how taxpayers will once again get hammered. 

“Later in the week, McCain proposed to green the government by buying more fuel-efficient vehicles. But while
fuel-efficient vehicles certainly exist, they tend to cost much more than the fuel savings they produce.
 
Hybrid cars aren?t cost-effective unless gas costs around $10 per gallon or the cars are driven more than 65,000
miles per year.  FedEx Corp, owner of the
largest fleet of hybrid trucks, has publicly admitted that the trucks aren?t cost-effective.  The cost of
Santa Clara, CA?s fuel cell buses is a staggering $51.66 per mile as compared to $1.61 per mile for a diesel bus.
 
Perhaps McCain should put his money where is mouth is and get a fuel cell model for his Straight Talk Express
campaign bus. Let?s see if he?s willing to spend his limited campaign funds living up to his own proposals.”