August 2, 2022 - The $369 billion climate package unveiled by Democrats in the USA last week is full of subsidies for technologies meant to rein in pollution, but provisions to supercharge the sale and use of traditional bicycles, along with a tax credit worth up to $900 for purchasing e-bikes were axed reports the Washington Post.
Also gone is a pretax benefit for commuters to help cover the cost of biking to work. All were included in the roughly $2 trillion package that passed the House last year. The omission is a blow to bike manufacturers and cycling enthusiasts who pushed for months to include the pro-bike provisions in Democrats’ climate package.
“We need people not just to shift from gasoline cars to electric cars. We need people to shift from cars, period,” said David Zipper, a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government who focuses on urban development. “We can do that. But there’s nothing in this bill that makes that process easier or faster, or more likely to happen.”
Read the full report here.
