A new group called the Energy Equality Coalition launched on Thursday. The group’s goal is to “end taxpayer subsidies and ensure a level playing field for middle-class American energy consumers.”
For now, the group is starting with a focus on electric cars, but sources close to the group tell THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the group could expand its focus to other subsidies, particularly ones that disproportionately benefit the wealthy. The impending extension of current tax subsidies helped prompt the group’s formation. In the short term, the goal is building a grassroots list of those opposed to such subsidies, and the end goal is dismantling them.
The subsidies for electric cars are an easy target: A UC Berkeley study found that “the top income quintile has received about 90% of all [electric vehicle tax] credits.” The group’s slogan is populist and pointed: Electric Cars: built by billionaires, bought by millionaires and subsidized by the rest of us.
George Landrith is President and CEO of Frontiers of Freedom, and he serves on the board of the Energy Equality Coalition. He tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD:
It’s not clear who funds the group, as there’s no appeal for money on the site, only a call to action: write your legislators! Of course, we taxpayers help fund the Elon Musks of the world to make electric cars in the first place, as the EEC observes. We also fund the tax credits then help mainly wealthy people to buy them, and once they’re bought, we even help fund their charging stations.
The EEC’s call to action reads:
With the federal legislating largely done for the year, it all will start anew come January. But there will be lots of smaller battles over electric car subsidies at the state and local level for the EEC to fight.
