Should Tax Credits for Energy-Based Ideas and Products be Extended?
- Post By: Greg Crumpton
- Date:
- Category: Blog
This is a very BIG question. It has more sides to it than a pyramid built out of mirrors.
The short answer is, some should be extended, some should be scrapped.
I am on the fence about many of the credits and here’s why:
On one hand I feel that the credits are an economic stimuli. On the other hand, it’s big Government dabbling in the private sector where, deep in my heart, I know it doesn’t belong.
With the madness that we as a nation have been through over the last 5-6 years, economically speaking, I like that we can use the Government to get some stuff up and running. The issue below the surface is that once the Government gets involved, unlike say, angel investors or private equity and venture capital money, it doesn’t know when to take cash out and move on.
So, if history in any indicator, and it’s usually 99.97% accurate 100% of the time, we need to let the private sector figure out how to best do this. Boone Pickens, Elon Musk and folks with great vision and resources will move on this as soon as the market will allow. They have the capacity to develop the methodology and processes that make energy-based decisions realistic. In my opinion, the market won’t allow this until it quits getting freebies.
As long as the Government is involved in setting policies that allow for manipulation, and if you dig into any policy it can be manipulated by scoundrels, you will have an artificial business, albeit energy-based, environment.
So at the end of all this, my vote is to let them expire. Then we will get a realistic feel for what the actual tax-paying base thinks. Spending and investments are the only true indicators for this. Let the free market set a business course that equipment manufacturers adapt to. Let energy selling companies figure out a true rate structure that is equitable across each region. Ultimately, let the public set the policy on how we consume, purchase and best utilize energy and the HUGE number of pieces that the energy-business consist of will fall into place.
This is very, very simplified. There are as many worthwhile debates that could go on for eons, none of which will move our country forward in the way a private market setting its own course will. And it will.
