Robert Mills, et. al.:
This idea was put forth by Dave Goldstein, a leading EV advocate, on the EV1
email discussion forum.
On Sun, 2 Feb 2003 12:03:44 -0800 [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> Gas tax increase is an incentive for consumer purchases, but
> it is also a disincentive for government to advocate EVs.
> More gas tax might be appropriate, maybe to fund the war effort,
> but the consumer economic model is not the only issue, there
> is also the government economic model. Keep in mind the reality
> that eventually we need some sort of road use tax or fuel use tax
> for the EVs to fund the public works that make them useful (roads,
> public charging, etc).
Keep in mind, however, that consumers already
pay a considerable tax burden on their electricity
purchases, and on a *btu basis,* electricity is
more highly-taxed than gasoline! This strongly
suggests that rather than *adding* to EV owners'
tax burdens -- and creating an added *disincentive*
for EVs -- a portion of *existing* electricity taxes
should be reallocated for road use purposes,
including charging infrastructure.
Granted that EV and Grid-rechargeable hybrid
users would use less energy per mile and therefore --
at least initially -- pay lower highway taxes, this is
entirely consistent with the purpose of having tax
incentives in the first place -- to promote the vital
national and local goals of decreasing foreign oil
consumption, greenhouse gases and ground level
ozone.
When EVs and GRHEVs begin to reach
*critical mass* on our public highways -- which
I would define as greater than 5 percent of the
total number of highway vehicles in a given
state or locale -- it would then be fitting and
proper for legislators to review the question
of tax incentives to determine whether or not
additional taxes for EVs and GRHEVS are
warranted.
Regards,
Dave Goldstein
President, EVA/DC and
Program Development Associates
Washington, D.C.
Biofuels at Journey to Forever
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Biofuel at WebConX
http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm
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