Some of the lawmakers seem to have the idea that their job is to undermine the adoption of clean vehicles and undermine the shift away from fossil fuels to clean power sources. Sometimes it's even blatantly obvious that the lawmakers are doing this specifically to protect the oil industry. Protect the oil industry from what? From the danger that the population will abandon buying oil because they have cars powered off energy other than their fossil fuels.

E Prize Act of 2012 (HR3872 112'th Congress)

Proposed by Rep. Dan Lungren on Feb 1, 2012, (Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and query for H.R.3872 in the 112'th congress) it would do this:-

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the Excellence in Energy Efficiency Act of 2012' or the E Prize Act of 2012'.

SEC. 2. PRIZE TO FIRST MANUFACTURER OF HIGHLY-EFFICIENT MID-SIZED AUTOMOBILES POWERED BY GASOLINE.

The Secretary of Energy shall establish a program to award a prize in the amount of $1,000,000,000 to the first automobile manufacturer incorporated in the United States to manufacture and sell in the United States 60,000 mid-sized sedan automobiles which operate on gasoline and can travel 100 miles per gallon.

The issue with this proposed legislation is that it would reward automakers for continuing the use of oil. While it would (if it works) decrease the quantity of oil being burned, the population would remain 100% addicted to the use of fossil oil. The 100 miles/gallon fuel efficiency goal is laudable, but what isn't is that we'd remain addicted to fossil oil. (see http://www.torquenews.com/1075/rep-lundgren-proposes-1-billion-prize-oil-addicting-automakers)

This bill is a provision of H.R.1794 -- New Options Petroleum Energy Conservation Act of 2009 (Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and query for H.R.1794 in the 111'th congress) -- a bill that died in committee. That bill appears to be pretty decent.

• To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the credit for plug-in electric drive vehicles. (H.R.3768 112'th Congress)

A bill proposed by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) during the 2011 Winter Break (Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and query for H.R.3768 in the 112'th congress) would erase the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.

This bill is a case of Big Oil and the Auto Industry being a single person who is a Congressman pushing for legislation that would kill electric vehicles. Namely, Rep. Mike Kelly owns a Chevy car dealership in Western Pennsylvania. The dealership was started by his Father in the early 1950's and was one of the dealerships nearly killed during the GM bankruptcy. He got angry from that, fought off the attempt to kill his dealership, and got elected to Congress. (see http://www.torquenews.com/1075/rep-kellys-hr-3768-proposes-repeal-electric-car-7500-tax-rebate) Additionally, Rep. Mike Kelly owns millions of dollars worth of oil company stock on which he earns hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in dividends. (see http://www.torquenews.com/1075/why-oil-stock-owning-congress-member-pushing-end-ev-tax-credits)

It reads:

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the credit for plug-in electric drive vehicles.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REPEAL OF CREDIT FOR PLUG-IN ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES.

Subsection (g) of section 30D of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:

`(g) Termination- This section shall not apply to property placed in service after the date of the enactment of this sentence.'.