As the Associated Press reports, in light of the rising costs of gas and ongoing efforts to promote the use of alternative fuel, lawmakers in my home state of Massachusetts are proposing legislation that would provide citizens valuable incentives to purchase hybrid vehicles:

The bill, which could come up for a vote in the Senate as soon as Thursday, would reward drivers who buy hybrid or alternative fuel cars with tax breaks, free transponders to get through tolls quicker and open access to HOV lanes. The bill also would require that at least half of the state’s fleet of vehicles run on alternative fuels by 2010, and establish an Alternative Fuels Institute at the University of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts is already ninth in the nation in the number of hybrid cars on the road, according to Republican Sen. Bruce Tarr, the bill’s author. The bill is getting a warm reception from the Republican administration of Gov. Mitt Romney, who has been pushing similar ideas. Senate President Robert Travaglini, a Democrat, said the cost to the state would be minimal.

On the one hand, as a diehard liberal, I am all for promoting alternative fuels and ending our reliance on fossil fuels, either imported or obtained domestically by drilling and potentially destroying natural resources in the process. So I applaud my state’s leaders for this type of proposal that would encourage and reward people who buy hrbrid cars.

On the other hand, as a liberal, I also have to point out that at currently, hybrid cars still tend to cost more than their non-hybrid versions. This basically means that only well-to-do middle class families have the resources to buy hybrid cars at this point. So in effect, this bill would reward those who are already relatively well-off, rather than helping those who are in the most need -- poor and working class families.

In an ideal world, this bill should provide stronger incentives and tax breaks that would allow as many people as possible, including the poor and working class, to buy hrbrid cars, not just those who already have the means to do so. That is the final piece that would make this bill complete.