Revisit hybrid tax breaks.

Byline: The Register-Guard

If you mentioned hybrid cars to most Americans five years ago, they thought about saving fuel and cutting emissions. These days, they're just as likely to think about speed and size and, oh yes, those big-time new federal tax breaks.

That shift in perceptions is based on reality. A recent story in The New York Times noted that many new hybrid vehicles, which use both gasoline and electric power, get gas mileage that is close to their conventional counterparts - and a far cry from the 70 miles per gallon that typified the first generation of hybrids.

Sales are thriving and are expected to top 200,000 this year, despite prices that run as much as $9,000 more than non-hybrid vehicles. One reason is that manufacturers are offering buyers the feel-good illusion of energy conservation, while delivering the zoom and flash that have traditionally drawn American consumers to showrooms.

This is a free country, and consumers can buy and drive whatever they want. The problem comes when the federal government offers hefty tax breaks to people who buy gas-guzzling hybrids that contribute nothing to energy conservation.

At a time when the price of oil has surged past $60 a barrel and gas prices are averaging nearly $2.30 a gallon, it's bad public policy to apply tax breaks to all vehicles that utilize hybrid technology, regardless of their fuel efficiency. That's especially true when no credits are available for small, super-efficient non-hybrids that deliver better mileage and produce fewer emissions than some of their hybrid cousins.

Congress should reconsider the tax credits provided in the recently passed transportation and energy bills. Under that legislation, all hybrids qualify for not just tax breaks, as in the past, but dollar-for-dollar credits of up to $3,000. While lawmakers prudently included language pegging the amount of the credits to fuel efficiency, all hybrids still qualify for minimum credits, regardless of how lousy their mileage is.

Congress should retain tax credits for hybrids but eliminate them for models that do not offer significant gains in fuel efficiency. With the resulting savings, lawmakers should increase the number of hybrid vehicles that qualify for tax breaks - the new bills phase them out after manufacturers have sold the first 60,000 vehicles. Increasing that limit would encourage more sales and, in the long run, influence manufacturers to produce and aggressively market more fuel-effici- ent hybrid vehicles.

If Congress is really serious about energy conservation and independence, it should revisit tax breaks for hybrid vehicles.