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Instead of a gas tax holiday, use the gas taxes to give people in large cities 50% (or even 100%!) rebates on eBikes. If you especially focus on delivery driv

Instead of a gas tax holiday, use the gas taxes to give people in large cities 50% (or even 100%!) rebates on eBikes. If you especially focus on delivery drivers in large cities, you can reduce millions of daily trips and gas use dramatically, which would have a larger impact on the price of gas, especially since it would also materially impact the expected future demand and price of gas.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
Top 10% of gas consumption is done by gas consumers in the US in rural areas who can’t afford EVs but are also driving pickup trucks. Use economic incentives to move them to EVs faster (EV credit at point of sale, higher petrol taxes, bring back home charger tax credit as a point of sale credit with the installer), or allow these folks to continue to have the economic exposure to a fungible global oil market. Those are the options. https://www.coltura.org/gasoline-superusers https://www.coltura.org/gasoline-superusers https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5888d6bad2b857a30238e864/t/60ff036e15db6a1139195020/1627325296710/Coltura+Gasoline+Superusers+Report+July+2021.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5888d6bad2b857a30238e...
- Something1234 4y ago
  I don't think EVs make sense for a lot of rural use. Slow charging, and they need a lot more torque. The Ford electric truck makes a lot of sense, but they can't be rolled out quickly enough. They would be great for moving around workers for harvest and some limited pickup, but there's a reason pick-ups are the most common vehicle in rural area.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- asdajksah2123 4y ago
  EVs are 30-40 times more expensive than an eBike. Manufacturing, shipping them, etc. is also harder and ramping up production will take more time. To get the same gas reduction bang for the buck those top 10% would need to be consuming 30-40x more gas. And as others have pointed out, those high gas users are probably not great markets for current EVs anyways. Current EVs work because most people don't need to use too much energy in 1 day, so they can fill up enough for a days worth of driving overnight. High gas users, almost by definition, will be using up a lot more energy, which can likely only be sustained by using gas cars, which can refuel the energy in minutes.
maerF0x0 4y ago
IMO we should be parameterizing solutions, not prescribing them. Any thing which produces < X grams of CO2 per KM should be subsidized. (or whatever the real metric should be). 2 problems arise if not done that way 1. The market distorts away from suitable alternatives towards specific items (which may only been greenwashed, btw) 2. As future products progress they actually are disincentivized despite being superior, unfortunately laws and governmental programs seem to be sticky long beyond their usefulness
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  Or, a carbon fee and dividend. Which would put gas prices up, make everything else relatively cheaper and reward effificiency.
- asdajksah2123 4y ago
  Agreed. I was providing an example, but if this was a step the govt took, it should certainly be parametrized.
polartx 4y ago
And what of parents that are commuting here or there with children in tow? I don’t think Americans are ready to see our cities become the two-wheeled circuses many tropical Asian countries are known for.

toomuchtodo 4y ago

Top 10% of gas consumption is done by gas consumers in the US in rural areas who can’t afford EVs but are also driving pickup trucks. Use economic incentives to move them to EVs faster (EV credit at point of sale, higher petrol taxes, bring back home charger tax credit as a point of sale credit with the installer), or allow these folks to continue to have the economic exposure to a fungible global oil market. Those are the options. https://www.coltura.org/gasoline-superusers https://www.coltura.org/gasoline-superusers https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5888d6bad2b857a30238e864/t/60ff036e15db6a1139195020/1627325296710/Coltura+Gasoline+Superusers+Report+July+2021.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5888d6bad2b857a30238e...

Something1234 4y ago
I don't think EVs make sense for a lot of rural use. Slow charging, and they need a lot more torque. The Ford electric truck makes a lot of sense, but they can't be rolled out quickly enough. They would be great for moving around workers for harvest and some limited pickup, but there's a reason pick-ups are the most common vehicle in rural area.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
asdajksah2123 4y ago
EVs are 30-40 times more expensive than an eBike. Manufacturing, shipping them, etc. is also harder and ramping up production will take more time. To get the same gas reduction bang for the buck those top 10% would need to be consuming 30-40x more gas. And as others have pointed out, those high gas users are probably not great markets for current EVs anyways. Current EVs work because most people don't need to use too much energy in 1 day, so they can fill up enough for a days worth of driving overnight. High gas users, almost by definition, will be using up a lot more energy, which can likely only be sustained by using gas cars, which can refuel the energy in minutes.

maerF0x0 4y ago

IMO we should be parameterizing solutions, not prescribing them. Any thing which produces < X grams of CO2 per KM should be subsidized. (or whatever the real metric should be). 2 problems arise if not done that way 1. The market distorts away from suitable alternatives towards specific items (which may only been greenwashed, btw) 2. As future products progress they actually are disincentivized despite being superior, unfortunately laws and governmental programs seem to be sticky long beyond their usefulness

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Or, a carbon fee and dividend. Which would put gas prices up, make everything else relatively cheaper and reward effificiency.
asdajksah2123 4y ago
Agreed. I was providing an example, but if this was a step the govt took, it should certainly be parametrized.

polartx 4y ago

And what of parents that are commuting here or there with children in tow? I don’t think Americans are ready to see our cities become the two-wheeled circuses many tropical Asian countries are known for.