Here’s a story that ought to rile up the people who can’t seem to understand the need to provide businesses in America with incentives to develop and use alternative fuels. These folks like to use the word subsidy as if it’s a bad word. I think incentive is a much better word and in the case of this story, it’s more accurate. This is from Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s website last Friday:
In her weekly radio address, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced she has signed a package of legislation that will, for the first time, create incentives for consumers who buy alternative fuel vehicles and service stations that make ethanol and biodiesel available to their customers.
“The state that put the world on wheels will be the state that makes those wheels independent of foreign oil,” Granholm said. “As more E-85 and flex fuel vehicles are produced by the Big Three automakers, it is essential that we make biodiesel and ethanol products more widely available to encourage their use.”
Granholm said a portion of the $2 billion 21st Century Jobs Fund is being targeted to developing alternative energy production in Michigan. As the automotive capital of the world, Michigan is a logical choice to be the center of alternative energy research and production.
The seven-bill package reduces the gas tax by 36 percent on fuel that contains ethanol and by 20 percent on biodiesel blends. The legislation also provides grants to service station owners who want to renovate or expand their existing stations to make E-85 and biodiesel available and allows for the creation of new agriculture renaissance zones to help spur additional ethanol and biodiesel plants.