Our Maryland state government subsidizes buyers of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles $360 each, on top of the federal subsidy of about $6,000. The customers for this product are mainly the well-to-do. The alleged purpose of this redistribution of wealth is to conserve fuel and reduce harmful emissions.
To provide a comparable benefit, at far less expense, to working and middle class Marylanders who cannot, even with subsidies, justify the expense of the exotic vehicles for which the state is investing money developing plug-in power stations at various locations, why not look into free compressed air for all those under-inflated tires?
Rapid deployment of free tire filling machines could be implemented by paying service station owners to remove coin collecting devices from air pumps already available. This program will benefit many more families and reduce fuel consumption and air pollution over the next few years at least as effectively, and far less expensively, than subsidizing the rich to buy impractical vehicles most of us cannot afford.
Jeffrey Klein, Glen Burnie