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Mainers's Plan: Greenbacks for Greener Autos

January 28, 2009 - AUGUSTA -- President Obama is getting plenty of unsolicited advice these days about how to save the economy and the environment.

He might even be getting some good ideas.

Now, two members of Gov. John Baldacci's Cabinet are getting into the mix. And it just might have the right combination of political appeal and technical merit to get some notice.

Patrick McGowan, commissioner of the Department of Conservation, and David Littell, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, say their idea – a set of financial incentives to replace old gas guzzlers with new energy-efficient cars – will clean the air, fight global warming, provide tax relief to families and help bail out American carmakers without actually giving them any more taxpayer money.

"I told Littell, 'Why don't we think big?' " McGowan said this week.

McGowan came up with the basic idea of a car buyback program. He pitched it to Littell, who liked it and began tinkering with the technical aspects, with help from his staff.

The commissioners are not the only ones to propose a car-buying stimulus in recent weeks, but their American Clean Cars Initiative clearly brings some simple Yankee ingenuity to the idea. Here's how it would work.

First, anyone who buys an American-made car that gets 30 miles per gallon or better would get a $5,000 tax credit. In five years, the credit would climb to $7,500 for buying a vehicle that gets at least 35 mpg.

Second, anyone who qualifies for that credit could get a second one if they trade in an old gas guzzler to be scrapped and recycled into new car parts. The second credit would be $3,000 for trading in an SUV or truck that's at least 15 years old, or $1,500 for scrapping a car that's at least that old.

A third piece would allow anyone qualifying for the program to help cover remaining costs by taking money out of their 401(k) plans without any tax penalties.

The two tax credits could effectively give a family as much as $8,000 toward the purchase of a new American-made car that would cut their gasoline use in half and dramatically reduce the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide they contribute to the atmosphere.

"If we really are serious about carbon emissions, we've got to get rid of these gas hogs," McGowan said.

Modernizing America's fleet of vehicles also would mean less smog and other air pollution in Maine, which sits at the end of the nation's tailpipe, according to Littell.

"The new cars are so much cleaner than the old cars," he said.

The program could help jump-start the domestic market, free up private credit for the industry and encourage the domestic development of more fuel-efficient cars, they said.

"The idea of just giving them money to keep doing what they've been doing is something close to that definition of insanity – when you do the same thing over and over and expect different results," McGowan said.

Among the other potential side benefits, any increase in car sales would be good news for local school and police budgets that rely heavily on vehicle excise taxes.

It is definitely not a cheap idea. But, the two men say, it would be a small fraction of the $850 billion stimulus package that Obama is already talking about.

McGowan and Littell say they know there are plenty of other ideas out there. And neither has a direct connection to President Obama or his BlackBerry. But as the duo was hatching its plan, some others who do have direct connections to Obama – at least constitutionally – came up with a similar idea.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is co-sponsor of legislation introduced Jan. 14 that promises to get as many as 1 million gas guzzlers off America's roads each year. The plan would give vouchers of $2,000 to $4,500 to people who trade in old vehicles for energy-efficient cars, although it focuses less on the oldest and dirtiest vehicles, among other differences.

As you might expect, the idea has some fans in Detroit. "This gets people back in showrooms," Dave McCurdy, chief executive of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said of the congressional proposal.

The Consumer Federation of America also came out in support of the general idea this week.

McGowan and Littell were still reviewing their letter Friday. They plan to circulate it to members of the congressional delegation and others next week before posting it to the White House and to key members of the Obama administration.

"Even if they took a piece of this," McGowan said, "I think it would help."

JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald, January 24, 2009


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