Tax News Archive:

Al Gore unveils a plan to make Americans more energy efficient

The Gore campaign has unveiled a plan to make vehicles, homes, and trucks used by Americans more energy efficient and cut down the costs related to gasoline and utility bills. This plan will cost $46.3 billion dollars over the next ten years. The plan is to introduce tax credits and financial incentives to lure people away from the traditional ways of running their cars and homes. This will also help clean up the environment according to the Gore campaign.

The tax credits and incentives offered by the Gore plan are:

• $5000 tax credit for buying hybrid electrical and gas powered engine cars and sports utility vehicles and $6000 tax credit for buying electric or fuel cell propelled cars and sports utility vehicles. This will cost $12 billion over the ten-year period and the credit will end in 2010.
• Up to $4000 tax credit on pick up trucks that are three times more energy efficient than a similar truck using gas and $5000 tax credit for delivery trucks. $10,000-$15,000 tax credit on 18 wheeler trucks that are 1 _ to 2 times more energy efficient than their gas models. This will cost $4.6 billion over ten years.
• 20% tax credit on the purchase of an energy efficient electric heat pump hot water heaters and natural gas heaters plus other qualified equipment for a building. The cost is $600 million over ten years.
• $2000 tax credit for buying homes that use energy efficient equipment for heating, cooling, and hot water (must exceed 1998 International Energy Conservation Code) and $1000 tax credit for homeowners who want to upgrade the equipment they already have in their homes to more energy efficient equipment. This will cost $16.6 billion over ten years.
• Increases funding for the weatherization program for low-income families that will help make their homes more energy efficient. For every $1 invested, the energy savings equal $1.80. Funding spread over ten years would cost $1.5 billion.
• Tax credit of 20% on a maximum of $1000 spent on setting up a solar water heating system and $2000 tax credit for rooftop photovoltaic systems. This will cost $1 billion over ten years.
• Some states charge more money if you want to use cleaner energy sources in your home. Al Gore purposes to reimburse the taxpayer on a per kilowatt-hour basis for the purchase of a cleaner energy alternative. This would cost $5 billion over ten years.
• A dollar for dollar program to match state funding to help them make electric energy more efficient plus help the general public in paying for their current utility bills by reducing their usage. This will cost $5 billion over ten years.
• A competition where 20 communities will walk away with $100 million each if they can come up with ways to make their community more energy efficient, reduce pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. This would help bring together the industry and the local government in reaching a unilateral decision. This will cost $2 billion over ten years.