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Home Front: Politix
Not to be outdone by California, Mass. floats the idea of "Pay as you drive program".
2010-12-30
This is the part that got me. "The plan also calls for establishing a pilot "Pay as You Drive" car insurance program, which increases car insurance rates the more miles a person drives, and is seen as a way to give drivers' incentive to stay off the road. Bowles said the voluntary pilot, which doesn't have a start date yet, will measure the program's effectiveness and whether consumers accept it."
Another way to transfer costs from the elderly to the young, who do so much more driving, and from those in jobs that enable them to work from home (programmers and managers, f'r instance), to those who can't (secretaries, shop clerks, factory workers). On the other hand, if the voters fuss too much, this may go away -- Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Bowles is only "floating the idea".
The state's energy chief on Wednesday released a plan to sharply cut Massachusetts' greenhouse gas emissions that calls for better efficiency, more hydroelectric power and an experimental insurance program aimed at curbing driving.

The "Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2020" tries to reduce emissions to 25 percent below their 1990 levels within the decade. The target is the maximum allowed by the state's two-year-old anti-global warming law, which required Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles to chose a range between 10 and 25 percent.

The plan by Bowles outlines more than two dozen steps to get there that mix existing policies with expanded or new programs.

Bowles called the document "a roadmap of multiple routes" that will require diligence to ensure Massachusetts reaches the law's mandates and helps mitigate climate change. He said the plan won't require new regulation or cost businesses and residents more than they'll get back in savings.
The whole article is worth a read if you have taken your blood pressure pills this morning.
Posted by:Delphi

#4  gorb, if this is a car insurance plan, there's no need to get the legislature involved at all. They could probably do it all with an order from the state bureau of insurance.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2010-12-30 22:17  

#3  Any rep or senator who votes for this had better plan on retiring after that.
Posted by: gorb   2010-12-30 20:43  

#2  ...All those Massachusetts liberals driving their Priuses because it's green and costs less have got to be asking themselves, "WTF?"
Now as soon as they get their 'pay-as-you-drive' road tax bill every year, they'll really be wondering what to do next.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2010-12-30 19:55  

#1  We ALL already have that, it's called "Gasoline Taxes".
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2010-12-30 19:49  

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