You know that I worked on a story on the push to end Georgia's very generous $5,000 tax credit for those people who purchase or lease electric-powered cars.


The man behind the proposal is Rep. Chuck Martin, a Republican from Alpharetta. He tried to end the tax credit a year ago and failed. He reintroduce the proposal this year and has tied the savings from ending the tax credit to help pay for the $1 billion transportation bill.


The story, which airs this morning on Morning Edition starting at 6 a.m. and again on the evening broadcast All Things considered from
4 p.m.-5:30 p.m., will explain that Martin sees the tax credit as obsolete and unfairly supporting electric cars while ignoring hybrid cars.


What I found interesting: Martin actually drives a hybrid... a Kia Optima. He's had the car nearly two years and he believes that the greater range that he gets from a car that switches from electric to gas equals what an owner of an all-electric vehicle, like the Nissan Leaf gets.


"I've driven about 23,000 miles since I've had the car, since May 2013," he says. "If you take somebody who has Leaf (all-electric) miles and second car miles and look at their carbon footprint, I would venture a guess that in most cases mine is the same or less."


Listen to his reasons behind the purchase of the hybrid.



And also realize that Martin says he would push for ending the electric vehicle credit whether or not he owned the hybrid car.



What do you think of his reasoning? Chime in below in the comments section.