Gov. Deval Patrick recently announced a new initiative that will provide rebates of up to $2,500 for any Bay State resident who buys a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle that is registered in Massachusetts. The incentives will be funded with $2 million in auction proceeds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an 11-year-old program to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. Yet, in our Flash Poll question for the week of April 1, readers were evenly split over whether the rebates make good public policy.
