21st Century Regenerative Technology

1. Tesla, Schwarzenegger to Make WhiteStar Manufacturing Announcement
2. Canada's Got a Carbon Tax, Eh?

Tesla, Schwarzenegger to Make WhiteStar Manufacturing Announcement

2008-06-30 07:00

Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups

Tesla just sent out a media alert that says the company will be making a big announcement on Monday afternoon concerning “a significant development in Tesla’s manufacturing strategy” for the electric vehicle startup’s next car, a sedan code-named WhiteStar. Tesla plans to hold a press conference at the company’s headquarters in San Carlos, Calif., and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Treasurer Bill Lockyer will attend and discuss “clean technology investment in California.”

While Tesla won’t comment further on what the announcement is until Monday afternoon, we’re guessing that Tesla will partly manufacture its WhiteStar sedan in California. If so, would this be in addition to the plant planned for New Mexico, or would it replace that plant? In February 2007 Tesla said that it would build a $35 million assembly plant in Albuquerque to produce the WhiteStar. Construction on that New Mexico plant was supposed to start in April 2007 and deliver 400 jobs to the area.

The fight between states to bring green jobs to cities has become fierce. The announcement about the New Mexico plant last year noted that the company chose the state because of incentives like the “high wage job tax credit, the manufacturer's investment tax credit and assistance from the Job Training Incentive Program.” That release also pointed out that “several states, including Arizona and California, were in talks with Tesla Motors over locating the “WhiteStar” assembly plant.” We’ll be covering the news on Monday and will update you guys as soon as we know.

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Canada's Got a Carbon Tax, Eh?

2008-06-30 04:00

Craig Rubens - Policy

North America’s first carbon tax is set to roll out this coming Tuesday in the Canadian province British Columbia. This means British Columbians can start expecting to pay even more at the pump and to their utility as the tax will apply to transportation fuels and home heating oil starting July 1.

With oil prices setting record highs the past few weeks, the timing for this tax couldn’t be worse. The tax isn’t designed to raise revenue for the government and will be accompanied by a one-time C$100 rebate as well as tax cuts elsewhere. Still, critics are not thrilled that a new gasoline tax will send prices at the pump even higher. Opposition have already organized “axe the tax” initiatives and have proposed to modify the tax to apply only to business and industrial emitters, sparing the individual consumer.

Originally announced in February, the tax will start by tacking on a C$10 per ton of CO2 charge to fossil fuels, increasing by C$5 per ton per year for four years. Although it comes at a painful time, a carbon tax is thought by many to be a more effective measure to reduce carbon emissions, compared to the more politically palatable cap-and-trade approach. Similar proposals have been made in the U.S., but so far with little traction.