Posted on 03/19/2021 5:25:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
Bruce Starr spotted the problem right away: The hydrogen-powered cars General Motors was showing off on the Oregon Capitol grounds wouldn’t need gas. And if they didn’t need gas, drivers wouldn’t be paying gas taxes that fund the state’s roads.
It was 2001, and the problem seemed urgent. GM predicted the cars would be on the market in a few years. Starr, then a Republican state representative, created a task force to figure out the future of transportation funding.
“There’s no asphalt fairy out there that sprinkles asphalt in the night on our roadways,” he said recently.
Widespread production of hydrogen-powered cars has not come to pass, but GM is eyeing an all-electric fleet by 2035 with the backing of the Biden administration. That has lawmakers in state capitals across the country and in Washington increasingly confronting the question that troubled Starr two decades ago.
Many have settled on an answer: charging drivers a penny or two for each mile behind the wheel. But while such a system would bring in tax dollars for roads, it also would present a new set of obstacles.
States are leading the way, with Oregon and Utah launching the first programs and several others running pilots to test technology and build public support. The approach has bipartisan support in Washington, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has signaled his openness.
But existing programs operate on a small scale, and a national system would mean tracking millions of vehicles. Supporters are pushing for the quick adoption of proposals to maintain funding of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, while opponents, including environmental advocates, argue the shift is premature at a time when electric vehicles are a fraction of cars on the road. New fees also would slow their adoption, they say.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Mai es leftist governor has had this on her radar screen
And used solar panels...................
There is always energy loss....whether gas, electric, or hydrogen...Damn physics......
The usage tax through gasoline sales will need to be replaced as more alternative powered vehicles are produced to properly fund roads.....
An easy way is a usage tax set by mileage. Most states require emission testing each year. Mileage is recorded at that time and recorded into the state system. Require alternative vehicles to also be checked and have their mileage enterred at that time. Invoice accordingly.....
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet
The advantage of hydrogen is not found in burning it through that highly-inefficient Internal Combustion Engine. It is found in its conversion to electricity through a fuel cell membrane.
They’ll know the and tax you on the amount of miles you drive.
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Outside of the fact that guvmints everywhere know more and more about you, this isn’t exactly unfair. In fact, to take this a step further, it isn’t just the amount of miles you drive...it’s the weight of the vehicle and an endless number of other factors including the fact that some level of road damage occurs all by itself due to seasonal effects, frost, ground shifting and so on.
In 1962, AASHO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) ran a road test that came to the conclusion that one transport truck did the road damage of 9,600 cars... the trucking industry of course has been arguing that ever and no doubt the real breakdown of how much road damage is caused by each factor isn’t known. However, suffice it to say that trucks do enormous more damage to roads than cars and a Harley does virtually none.
Just wait until there are electric trucks pulling transports on the road....
Personally, I think they should eliminate these horrible forms of taxation. Sell the roads to the corporations, and let them all become toll roads.
When I first moved to DFW, I hated toll roads, but I have come to realize there is no greater way to have a terrific road. They are built fast, they are well maintained, they are expanded quickly to meet capacity, and they are truly capitalistic in nature.
I am now happy to pay my road taxes via highway tolls.
The next billionaire will create and market a device that takes every odometer mile and records it to be half a mile.
(It works for stealing votes!)
I might not have a problem with this except for waste. When Obama introduced a zillion dollars for “shovel ready” projects, one of those projects ran past my house. It was HWY-20 from Tallahassee to all points west in the panhandle of Florida. HWY-20 was in exceptional good repair. It had recently been completely resurfaced. Then, along comes a zillion dollar shovel ready stimulus and the beautiful road got razed down to the bedrock and rebuilt. A totally, one-hundred percent waste of money. I had driven almost the entire road multiple times and not one spot on it even needed a patch.
Government is not a good steward of money. That’s because there is no profit motive. They spend money not to get a return, but to direct that money to favored persons and entities. The more money they have, the more they spend, the more they need.
When a company needs money, or even an individual, what do they do? We decide where we can make cuts. We decided what is really important. We sacrifice to obtain a greater good. Government does none of that. I’d say, if the state needs more money, start getting rid of employees who do nothing except fund their own jobs. In Leon county, Tallahassee, there are four EPA’s. One federal. One state. One county and one city. The last two were introduced because they would be “no cost” to the taxpayer. They are “self funded.” Thus, each day they send people out to write fines. There are no warnings. Just fines. And they have created a bevy of new regulations just so they can write fines. And, here’s a bonus. Many of the violations are “criminal.” But, here’s the golden lining, you can erase the criminal charge by taking an early intervention program that will cost you “only” $1500. (That’s in addition to your other fines.) Don’t take it and you have a criminal arrest on your record which will come up every time you apply for a job.
The government has become the Mafia, but with a defined benefit retirement plan and excellent dental care.
This is a tax on the suburbs and rural areas.
They’ve got to stem the flow from the cities.
Private toll roads should work, but the state run toll roads are just a toilet bowl full of corruption while the highways fall apart...
Where the rubber meets the old dirt road?
We split H2O on nuclear subs all-day becuase 1: we have a nuclear reactor for power.
2: we want the O2 to live.
We dump the H into the sea.
Hydrogen is not dense enough fuel to work. It is also explosive, remember the Hindenburg. Bureaucraps cannot rewrite the laws of physics. Electric cars like wind turbines are not the solution to the energy problem.
So is gasoline.................
Or whatever..................
Start with higher annual registration fees for those vehicles.
The real question is how each state sets the mileage tax for alternative-fueled vehicles.....
Plus there is still the conundrum of interstate travel but no tax system is perfect.....
Florida has the Sunshine State Parkway. NO BIG TRUCKS!..................
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida%27s_Turnpike
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