Political Quotes

“What we can see is, like the system that is being proposed by the Senate, there was no cost-benefit analysis. There was not a very clear idea of what the ultimate costs were going to be, and the experience with the program not only showed fraud or potential fraud but runaway expenses. Under the program that has come out of the committee, one of the concerns is that nonprofits will be able to utilize credits by selling them, which, of course, opens up the possibility that there could be a secondary market or abuses could occur in selling these large tax credits. There has been very little evaluation of whether or not the vehicles could be altered after their purchase, after the tax credit has been received, so that they could run in fact on gasoline or diesel. There is no data whatsoever to show that we would have a better environment as a result. In fact, there has been no cost-benefit analysis. Pursuant to an amendment I offered in the committee, there will be a study after the fact that will tell us how successful the program has been, but there has been no study in advance of that. In fact, the committee report language does not cite a single study or report justifying the credits under the reason for change.”