Peer Review Assignment
RUNNING HEAD: PERSUASIVE PAPER 0
Assignment #4: “Persuasive Paper Part: 2
Solutions and Advantages”
Luiz Carlos DaSilva
ENG 215- Research & Writing
Professor: Dr. Laura Howard
February 15, 2017
The Automotive Industry's Future
For many years in America, we have driven gasoline-fueled vehicles But, as the years go by more alternative-fueled vehicles become available in the U.S market. As more alternative energy vehicles become available affordability to all buyers, replenishing natural resource used and more fuel stations available becomes a primary concern. Also, the U.S has a foreign oil dependency that has been decreasing due to tax breaks offered by the federal government. However, the same tax break has not yet raised awareness for all. A concern to be considered is that those who are in need of a new vehicle but are unable to afford may not take advantage of the tax break. Instead, the rich who will save more money when they buy a new vehicle and the general population will not benefit from the tax break, not resulting in an increase of awareness of the advantages of alternative energy vehicles. Do you believe the government should give a tax break to those who are purchasing a new vehicle and are contributing to contributing towards our foreign oil independency?
Alternative energy vehicles, a term often used inappropriately. Many people think that because a car is consuming alternative energy. The vehicle is being beneficial to the environment in each and every way. Vehicles using alternative energy are only consuming a different source of energy. What many fell to realize is that if you are concerned about the environment, there are other alternative ways to consume less energy. The Obama administration had focused on the decrease of foreign oil dependency and increasing awareness to that matter. The following types of vehicles are showing bellow as alternative energy vehicle. However, none helps with the consumption of a less amount of natural resource. Nor they are made of any recycle material or with that as a purpose. The following vehicles are examples shown in The State of California Energy Commission (2002-2017) website.
Flex Fuel Vehicle: Often added to regular gasoline to cut cost "Ethanol' is in this case used as the primary fuel choice.
Bio-Diesel/Diesel: Similar to a gasoline powered vehicle. However, in this case, they are powered by diesel or a mix of diesel and biodiesel.
Hybrid: Vehicles equipped with a gasoline engine and battery operated electric engine in which is recharged when the vehicle operator is clustering or in light break conditions.
CNG: Are Natural gas powered car. Are vehicles with a refillable propane tank instead of a gasoline tank.
NEVs: Vehicles that are exclusively powered by the plug-in and charge no other source other than electricity.
Those vehicles are available for purchase in the US market. However, tax breaks are very complex. Many must also be reminded. It's a tax break not help with payment, nor it is an additional loan for down payment or any other support for the family who cannot afford the fees. Take for example a natural gas vehicle. It is something many families would like to purchase one and refuel it at home such as an electric car. However, if you do not own a home, there are no incentives for those who lives in a rental home or an apartment building. Although there are incentives to purchase one and get up to over one hundred thousand dollars in tax incentives. There are many things to consider starting with the following:
You must own your home
Vehicle purchased must be purchased new
Vehicle must be for public road usage (no farm vehicles)
You must buy a home's refueling station
Those requirements all sound great until you start realizing that it's a tax break in which you will have to pay everything out of pocket or take a loan. Then, it makes you think about how accessible this may be to the general public. Such as residents of rental city apartment complex where we could focus on having our current vehicles to natural gas a have a faster impact on the day to day drivability of those vehicles and decrease the foreign oil dependency. Those benefits are on the Energy Policy Act (2005) Listed under the Natural Gas Vehicles for America. website.
Many countries have multiple options of alternative types of fuel for their daily driven vehicles unlikely to us. Such as brazil and Mexico, who have natural gas kits for current vehicles kits that anyone can install in their vehicles for a low cost and still maintaining a gasoline tank in case they are unable to find a CNG refuel station. Although, many options are available for them to use to refuel their vehicles. However, the question remains. How clean are alternative fueled vehicles and shall we seek foreign oil independence?
Some people argue that if we are receiving a tax break, then we should be concern about the amount of pollution produced by those alternative energy vehicles. Others believe that educating buyers on what the benefits are will complicate the marketing strategies and mislead the consumer on looking further into the matter of how the energy is being created and where our electricity, natural gas, and gasoline come from.
It's very clear for all Americans as of how dependent on foreign oil we are. We see the gas price increase upon any significant global occurrence. However, it's up to each one of us as individuals to seek foreign oil independence and find alternative ways to do things. Such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [February 03, 2016] created in the 1970’s.
The EPA was created post the Clean Air Act as an agency to regulate each and every state is following the federal requirement and the major companies are following the guidelines and current technology to minimize the amount of toxic air pollutants is decreasing instead of increasing as shown in several reports produced in the early 1970’s. Setting Standards to be met as early as October 03, 1993.
The government is making their part to helping the ones who are willing to invest in technology to lessen the usage of gasoline fueled vehicle with incentives to hybrid, electric, natural gas, nitrogen powered vehicles, etc. However, it creates another matter in which we all should be more concerned. If the government is giving tax breaks to those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford the vehicles, a recharging station and being able to provide those new more expensive hybrid or alternate energy vehicles. The government shall also over be seeing affordability for all. According to Edmunds.com NEV's vehicle could be as cheap as $22.995.00. However, a fully electric vehicle comes with many concerns. We could mention several of them, but this can be easily narrowed into three major issues:
Recharging,
Driving range,
Family size.
The example listed above give a few examples of what an average person could encounter as an issue. Recharging: If you currently rent an apartment and do not have an assigned parking space within a few yards of a charging station. You are out of luck to charge/ refuel your vehicle, and you will have to pay for a garage service with charging station depending on where you live. Another matter we will encounter is the driving range. If you have to drive more than 60 miles to and from work, you will need to charge your vehicle to and from work. Also, if you are going out of town. You will have to look up charging stations. For example, If someone from Maryland decided they want to go to Disney world. The person will have to charge the vehicle 32 times for a round trip. Counting that each re-charge will take 14-22 hours to charge the vehicle fully per Reed, P (June 03, 2014) on the Edmunds website. This is without taking into effect if you have a family of 6 or more you wouldn't at this time find any vehicles in the U.S market that will accommodate the family on a full NEV's vehicle.
In paper, the cars sound excellent, and the technology is there to provide Americans. Based on a study publicized by A project of the George Washington University shows that the average American drives an average of 37 miles per day. This indicates that many Americans could take advantage of the tax break for alternative energy vehicles.
There are many factors we could consider to resolve this issues. Starting with the fact that the incentives should be upfront for buyers. For example: If a buyer is buying a vehicle in the U.S and is a used vehicle the buyer shall also be able to receive a tax break for that purchase.
Fuel stations should be incentivized to provide faster-charging stations to NEV and CNG vehicles. If we can refuel gasoline and diesel vehicles so easily. We shall also be able to refuel Electricity, Natural Gas, and Ethanol and so on as easy.
The Department of Energy should start a national public campaign to advertise the benefits of alternative energy vehicles. At this time the general public is still unaware of the benefits of alternate energy vehicles and how its already affecting us in more ways than we can imagine. Starting with the example of less pollution and having metro underground fueled purely by electricity.
Many big cities are opting for alternative energy buses for other types of public transportations including airports as publicized in by James Scott on the Greater Washington newspaper back in 2012. The decrease on foreign oil is trending down slowly due to those changes. If the general public becomes aware of the benefits and how they are already being used in our metropolis around the country. They may change their perception from being a futuristic thing and see that it's a thing of the present and that eventually, we all will be using alternative energy on the regular bases as a choice instead of being forced to used when we run out of natural resources.
References
State of California Energy Commission (2002-2017) Transportation Energy Choices. From: http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/transportation/afvs/
Energy policy Act (2005) Natural Gas Vehicles for America. From: https://www.ngvamerica.org/government-policy/federal-incentives/federal-tax-incentives/federal-incentive-alternative-fuel-infrastructure/
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [February 03, 2016] From: https://www3.epa.gov/ttn/atw/
Reed, P (June 03, 2014) Known the True Market Value of a New or Used Car by Phillip Reed From: https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/how-to-use-tmv.html and https://www.edmunds.com/
George Washington University (2015) The Asphalt’s getting crowded. From: http://www.facethefactsusa.org/facts/the-asphalts-getting-crowded-video-
Wood, D (September 28, 2016) 6 Charts that will make you Optimistic About America’s Clean Energy Future. From: https://www.energy.gov/
Scott, J (February, 28 2012) Metro Switching most buses to alternative fuel. From: https://ggwash.org/view/43799/metro-switching-most-buses-to-alternative-fuel
