There's a lobbying war breaking out between auto manufacturers and big oil over the EV tax credits:
Koch attacks: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Biofuels join Big Oil:
reuters.com/article/us-eth…
Tesla+GM+Nissan axis: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Trench warfare:
thehill.com/opinion/financ…
Koch attacks: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Biofuels join Big Oil:
reuters.com/article/us-eth…
Tesla+GM+Nissan axis: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Trench warfare:
thehill.com/opinion/financ…
We're approaching a critical point of the U.S. EV credit. The credit is given to customers of EVs for the first 200k EVs sold by each car manufacturer. Tesla was first to hit the mark, and the phaseout starts Jan 1. GM is close behind. This puts Republicans in a real bind 2/
Because if Congress doesn't do anything, the U.S. government will soon be in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing ONLY foreign EVs (Ford and Chrysler aren't really making any). That undermines the president's entire approach to trade policy 3/
Plenty of Republicans would be happy to do away with the EV tax credits altogether (which, ironically, would be the second-best option for Tesla because it would level the playing field). But there's no way the new Democratic majority in the House would pass an EV rollback 4/
Which means that from the GOP perspective, the best time for a fix is now, in the lame-duck session, before Dems take control. However, an all-out repeal of the credits is unlikely because several R states are heavily invested (see Nevada, home of the battery Gigafactory) 5/
So instead we have the Heller amendment (Heller, R from Nevada, who just got voted out), which would change the way the credits expire from the current system that punishes the early movers to universal credit expiration of 2022. I think most Dems would be on board, but 6/
Big oil is deeply concerned. First, the change would help permanently establish Tesla—the first company to reach mass-production EV #s. More importantly, they fear would make it easier for Big Auto to lobby to extend the 2022 date later. Oil letter: ogj.com/articles/2018/… 7/ 
They're probably not wrong in that assumption. The solar and wind credits, which are more similar to the Heller amendment structure for the EV credit, were perennially pushed forward in last-minute budget agreements. Hence, the PR war suddenly breaking out over this issue 8/
If anyone thinks they have a good idea how this ends, I'd love to hear it. Actually, let's vote. What's most likely to happen to the $7,500 U.S. EV tax credit? 9/
