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Gas taxes are unpopular. But EPA fuel economy standards are popular! So use fuel economy standards to make all new cars at least PHEV. Increase gas tax only whe
by Robotbeat 5y ago
Gas taxes are unpopular. But EPA fuel economy standards are popular! So use fuel economy standards to make all new cars at least PHEV. Increase gas tax only when almost all cars on the road can use electricity.
- bumby 5y agoThis might be conflating two issues. Gas taxes aren't really about reducing GHG, they're about funding infrastructure. So the CAFE standards actually hurt infrastructure investment. I'm not saying taxes can't be dual purpose, but we need to be cognizant of the primary intent and also to understand the blowback of policies, like how EPA fuel economy standards can affect other systems.
- Gravityloss 5y agoThere will be a driven kilometers based tax for electric vehicles, to finance road maintenance.
- bumby 5y agoIn the U.S. there's a federal pilot program for a vehicle-miles-traveled tax, but the proposal I saw wasn't meant to start until 2026. Some states have also instituted a kWh fee at the utility line. There's some administrative hurdles that needs to be worked out though, like the mechanism to track mileage. It's tougher than the gas tax because it's levied on each driver rather than on a relatively small number of wholesalers.