Feebates ∨

GOAL

Guide the United States toward implementing a feebate policy.

METHOD

Workshop, Whitepapers

OUTCOME

Convened the first Feebate Forum in the United States which hashed out potential features of a feebate policy, which could accelerate the production and adoption of more efficient vehicles.

OVERVIEW

Most industrialized countries have chosen a command-and-control approach to regulating the gas mileage of light cars and trucks. In many instances, these policies have stymied the development of more efficient vehicles.

To overcome this hurdle, RMI began researching alternative policies that would foster continuous improvement rather than compliance with an arbitrary standard. In RMI's 2004 study Winning the Oil Endgame, researchers analyzed a policy solution based on “feebates.”

The approach was simple: Inefficient vehicles would be subject to a surcharge (FEE-), and efficient vehicles would be granted a rebate (–BATE).

The fees on the inefficient vehicles would pay for the rebates on the efficient vehicles.

By regularly resetting the “pivot point” -- the point at which a vehicle earns a rebate or is subject to a surcharge -- feebates could accelerate the production and adoption of more efficient vehicles at little or no cost to society.

In August 2007, RMI hosted the Unted States’ first Feebate Forum to encourage an open, off-the-record dialogue between the auto industry and policymakers about feebates.

Twenty seven diverse stakeholders from across the United States and Canada attended the two-day event, hashing out potential features of a feebate policy.