Oil-Rich Republican Mike Kelly Introduces Legislation To End $7,500 EV Tax Credit

Some people really hate the Chevy Volt, though we suspect few people hate it as much as Chevrolet-Cadillac dealership owner, and freshman Republican Congressman Mike Kelly. After repeatedly going on record declaring that there is “no market” for the Chevy Volt, on the eve of December 30th, the oil-rich Kelly introduced legislation to repeal the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.

Kelly, who inherited his father’s car dealership in 1995, and married the heiress of the Phillips-Conoco oil company, has introduced legislation repealing the $7,500 tax credit, declaring it wasteful spending. This, despite voting to keep much-more generous subsidies and tax credits for hugely profitable oil companies. Kelly’s reasoning? “We want companies to be profitable.” Opps, looks like he let a little too much truth slip out there!

Then again why would Kelly, who has over $6 million in oil-related assets, want to end these generous subsidies for companies that make him money? How this is not a clear conflict of interest, I do not know, but even Kelly’s own constituents already seem fed up with him, as this video from a July town hall session shows.

In the video above, Kelly talks about poverty and how factories have gone under, yet he seems to have no problem bashing the very people who make the cars he sells. Kelly also tries to deflect the question with a question about pensions and portfolios, before going off on a spiel regarding rich vs. poor, have vs. have-nots, and rather than talk about oil companies he starts talking about GE not paying taxes, and at no point does he answer the actual question.

For a guy who inherited a car dealership, and married an oil heiress, Rep. Mike Kelly certainly has a lot of whining to do about the tax code. And hey, the tax code does suck, and it benefits big corporations over little taxpayers. I also think it is important to note that many of these subsidies also benefit other industries, though no industry is as profitable as Big Oil is these days (please, someone, prove me wrong.) And mind you, many of these people in the room likely voted for Kelly, who ran on the Tea Party promise of cutting government spending. Of course, it’s hard to keep promises like that when you stand to personally benefit from giving away tax payer money to oil companies. Then again, Kelly is in good company; since 1990,Big Oil has donated over $238 million to politicians, with 3/4 of that going to GOP candidates.

Then again, Obama recieved over $884,000 from oil and gas companies during his 2008 election bid.  Big Oil certainly knows how to hedge its bets.

I’m sure this will bring out the usual crowd who will declare this post “Republican bashing,” but I’m just presenting the facts here; a wealthy Republican with millions of dollars tied up in oil-assets doesn’t think there is a market for a vehicle that can get get over 2,365 MPG.

This guy isn’t going to be in Congress very long, mark my words.