TESTIMONY PRESENTED
BY
EV RENTAL CARS

BEFORE THE

SENATE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE

THE HONORABLE MAX BAUCUS, CHAIRMAN

APRIL 19, 2007

BY

JEFF PINK
CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND FOUNDER
EV RENTAL CARS
LOS ANGELES, CA

Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members of the Committee, I would like to sincerely thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on the issue of providing tax incentives for alternative fuel vehicles.

My name is Jeff Pink, and I am the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of EV Rental Cars, the only rental company in the United States renting exclusively environmental vehicles to America’s driving public. EV Rental Cars, based in Los Angeles, has offered a fleet of all-environmental hybrid vehicles to the public since its inception in 1998, and currently has more than 350 cars in eight locations primarily throughout the Southwest United States. EV Rental Cars' mission is to provide the most technologically advanced vehicles to America’s consuming public as soon as the manufacturer releases them to the industry’s marketplace. EV Rental Cars has the statistics and surveys in its possession that demonstrably show that most Americans’ first exposure to hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles often occurs behind the wheel of a rented vehicle. EV Rental Cars, as the leading and largest environmental rental company in the nation, believes very strongly in its stated goal of educating the driving public to the real and obvious advantages of driving clean fuel cars; not just to an individual family’s budget when it comes to gasoline-related transportation expenses, but also to the perceivable benefit of cleaner air quality in the home, on the road and in the workplace. EV Rental Cars is proud of its record of preventing over 100 tons of air pollution materials over the years from being released into the elements, saving the American public over $1 million in non-recoverable pollution abatement-related costs.

While we applaud the work that this Committee has helped to facilitate in providing individuals with an alternative motor vehicle income tax credit, and the yeoman’s work that you have done in leading and educating the American public as to the real benefits of driving clean vehicles, I stand here today to ask you to consider an expansion of the highly successful individual tax credit provisions to include companies such as mine that are involved in the purchase of clean, alternatively-fueled fleet vehicles.

EV Rental Cars is in the front ranks of America’s responsible clean energy companies. However, that leadership has come at a terrific price. EV Rental Cars alone has purchased almost 400 vehicles in the 2006 calendar year and, lacking access to the tax incentives enjoyed by responsible Americans looking to have an impact on America’s energy future, has lost several hundred thousand dollars in hoped-for applicable tax credits. At the time of these vehicle purchases, EV Rental Cars believed in and relied upon the alternative motor income tax credits provision to enable it to receive tax credits for these purchases. As the law is written today, that is not the case. I stand here today, hoping that the Committee will consider an expansion of the existing tax code coverage of hybrid and clean car technology tax credits for owners of hybrid fleets, such as EV Rental Cars, and the retroactive credit for those 2006 purchases in the 2007 alternative energy tax legislation under consideration by the Finance Committee. Specifically, EV Rental Cars requests immediate relief and asks that EV stakeholders be allowed to reduce their regular tax through the use of these tax credits for the 2006 tax year without impact from the federal AMT and not limited by the tentative minimum tax, and further that tax credits not used during this 2006 tax year be allowed to be carried over for use in all years subsequent to 2006. The tax credits that were carried over from 2006 into 2007 will get the same tax treatment in 2007 that they received in 2006; i.e., in 2007, these credits will be allowed fully against the regular tax and not limited by the tentative minimum tax. By granting this relief, this legislation will provide Americans with the opportunity to experience new technology and be educated in the financial incentives involved in driving responsibly. Additionally, as we believe that funds for these tax credits were already allocated for providing relief to the American taxpayers in 2006, the change in the law that we are advocating would not necessitate new funds to be allocated for this purpose.

Tom Friedman, one of America’s paramount economic thinkers, was quoted in the New York Times just this past week as saying, “Today, we are paying the accumulated economic, geopolitical and climate prices for the car culture in America. I am not proposing that we radically alter our lifestyles. We are who we are - but if we want to continue to be who we are, enjoy the benefits and be able to pass them on to our children, we need to fuel our future in a cleaner, greener way.”

EV Rental Cars has played a pivotal role in this discussion. We are asking that, as the debate over America’s energy future goes forward in this Subcommittee and on the Floor of the United States Senate that you might consider our emerging industry as one deserving of a helping hand from the Congress. If we are to continue to be a part of this national debate, we are hopeful that you might consider assisting an industry that literally has its hands tied behind its back. We stand ready to work with you as you address any alteration of the U.S. Code that impacts our rental car industry and future clean transportation options for Americans.