The BC Government has blown another $17 million on dubious plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This time, it’s rebates for people who buy hybrid or electric vehicles, or put infrastructure in to their homes to power them. From the Vancouver Province:

Starting in December, B.C. drivers will be eligible for $5,000 off the sticker price of vehicles powered by either new-battery electric, fuel-cell electric, plug-in hybrid electric or compressed natural gas.

Environment Minister Terry Lake made the announcement Saturday in Surrey.

Under the program, there will be a pot of about $17 million in funding incentives to help get people into clean-energy vehicles and scrap old gas-guzzling junkers. “Today we sit on the cusp of change,” Lake said at Surrey City Hall, surrounded by examples of greener vehicles.

As the technology behind electric vehicles advances, the government expects more and more people each year to purchase vehicles that don’t pollute the environment, Lake said. “I can see the future of B.C. transportation and it certainly looks very green,” he said.

Of the funds, about $2.5 million will go toward the BC Scrap-It program.

As well, homeowners who install dedicated charging stations in their homes for their clean-energy vehicles will get a rebate of up to $500 per station.

Another $6 million will go toward funding new charging stations and upgrades to hydrogen-fuelling stations at existing facilities.

“...It certainly looks very green,” said Lake. Actually, that’s just the colour of queasy taxpayers having to shell out another $17 million for something that should be a personal choice.

Listen, if electric vehicles are the wave of the future, and life-cycle energy savings make such a brilliant, compelling case to buy one, why do they have to be so heavily subsidized? When will green initiatives like this one be able to stand on their own two feet, without taxpayers shovelling money out the door to prop them up?