Dave MasonHeadline: Drivers May Soon Pay Taxes Based on How Much Their Car Weighs.
Me: Deep breath...exhale... I have so many thoughts about this. Long thread ahead.
https://www.autoblog.com/news/drivers-may-soon-pay-taxes-based-on-how-much-their-car-weighs
The current state of fuel efficiency standards in the US is a long, complicated story.
It's highlighted by two significantly different fuel economy standards (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard vs Environmental Protection Agency's standard), tax loopholes for gas guzzlers, failure to increase federal taxes on gas since 1993, different fuel economy standards for cars vs "trucks", and lack of political will to stand up to the automotive/petroleum industries & their lobbyists, among others.
I've contended for decades that the federal tax on gas should increase annually, based on the current rate of inflation. Gas shouldn't be cheap.
It's not a popular opinion, and it might not have "fixed" all the sins of the past. But I continue to feel this way. (However, the emergence of EVs has changed things, as the linked article mentions. I think most understand this.)
Disclosure: I'm a current EV owner/driver and have been for nearly 10 years.
As an EV owner, I haven't contributed to the pool of taxes used to fund highway infrastructure. Some would argue that isn't fair: I can't disagree.
(However, I'd also argue EV owners, over the life of their vehicles, are a big net positive for the environment vs gas-powered vehicles.)
So how do EV owners fairly contribute? It's a contentious question.
There have been a number of proposals, including a mileage fee and a flat EV fee.
The mileage fee was a privacy disaster: the government would track your vehicle's every move to tally your miles and bill you accordingly. That's a non-starter.
The numbers for a flat EV tax were often preposterous--EV owners would end up paying more than even the thirstiest of gas guzzlers. Not only was it unfair, it was an act of political cowardice: the number of voters affected was a small percentage. Politicians were more than happy to single out the small minority of EV owners.
Now, back to the linked article.
I'm not entirely opposed to replacing the federal gas tax with the proposed "pay by the pound" tax, even though it's far from perfect.
Vehicles in the US have gotten heavier and heavier since the 1980s. All those extra pounds have a numerous downsides, from passenger safety to pedestrian safety to wear & tear on the roads to fuel efficiency to, to, to...
But the proposal still has plenty of unfairness to it. You don't have to look that deep.
Consider two cars of approximately the same mass: one an EV, the other a gas guzzler. If one vehicle logs 5k miles per year and the other 50k miles per year, it doesn't matter which vehicle is which. The one vehicle is over paying and the other is under paying.
Perhaps instead of tying the fee to petroleum consumption or a mass-based flat fee, there could be a new fee on tires, based on the mass of the vehicle they're purchased for *and also* the number of miles a tire is rated for.
All vehicles use tires, so EV owners will rightfully be contributors. No one would have their number of miles driven or location tracked by the government. And regardless of vehicle efficiency, owners that drive less would ultimately pay less.
Of course whatever those fees are, they'd need to see annual increases based on the inflation rate to ensure tax revenue keeps pace with infrastructure costs.
I don't know if this idea is realistic or workable in the real world. But I like it more than any other proposal I've come across.
/fin
Anne DelongI wanted to read that article, but the ad pop-ups appeared faster than I could cancel or scroll past them and I gave up.
It does seem unfair to EV owners.
@Anne_Delong
Ugh. That really is frustrating.
And I'm with you--if a website chooses hostility and antagonism towards their viewers, close the tab and move on.
🙁
Craig Lee@DaveMasonDotMe I’ve had this same thought.
@DaveMasonDotMe Except that tax would probably be so massive that EVs would be driving around on bald tires or there'd be a black market to evade the tax.