Driver ticketed for using biofuel

I just had to BUY a Special Fuel Decal for my electric car, cost is 75.00 bucks a year for vehicles rated at 18000 pounds or less

It is because we do not pay a fuel tax to use the highways and biways when using alternative fuels , so it is another way to get money to help pay for road damage.

I am ok with that, last time I checked in MO. the tax alone on gas was .18 cents per gal.


here the fine is 500.00 if caught without a valid decal

 

Quote from priussoris:

I just had to BUY a Special Fuel Decal for my electric car, cost is 75.00 bucks a year for vehicles rated at 18000 pounds or less

It is because we do not pay a fuel tax to use the highways and biways when using alternative fuels , so it is another way to get money to help pay for road damage.

I am ok with that, last time I checked in MO. the tax alone on gas was .18 cents per gal.


here the fine is 500.00 if caught without a valid decal.

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If you drive an electric car 7,500 miles per year and get "fuel-taxed" $75.00 for doing so, you are paying $0.01 per mile.

If you drive a conventional car (ICE) 7,500 miles that achieves 30 mpg and pay 18 cents a gallon, you are paying $45.00 in fuel tax, or $0.006 per mile.

If you drive an electric car 15,000 miles per year and get "fuel-taxed" $75.00 for doing so, your are paying $0.005 per mile.

If you drive a conventional car (ICE) 15,000 miles that achieves 30 mpg and pay 18 cents a gallon, you are paying $90.00 in fuel tax, or $0.006 per mile.

If you drive an electric car less than 12,500 miles per year and pay a $75.00 "fuel tax" per year, you are paying more per mile than drivers with a conventional ICE car at 30 mpg and who get taxed at $0.18 per gallon.

 

I am in a Civil Engineering department, and there is a lot of research money into developing an easy way to charge mileage fees. A current thought is that the mileage can be tracked by satallite feeds from a transmitter in the vehicle, but privacy concerns will probably prevent that method from being used. A better system might be a vehicle log in the vehicle's computer that can be scanned once a year and a tax assessed then when you get new car tags, but the problem is retrofitting older cars and making the system tamper proof. Transportation isn't my area (I'm in Environmental), so I don't know too many specifics.

 

Roads have to be paid for somehow, and use taxes on cars or fuel make more sense than funding from general revenue, where bicycle riders would be subsidizing drivers. In ten or twenty years, when nobody can afford gas any more and all cars are electric, we'll have to have a funding mechanism in place. I would favor a tax based on vehicle weight and miles driven, even though it means I'd have to pay on my Xebra. In the old days when all cars were stinkers, a gas tax made sense, as gallons consumed was more or less proportional to pound-miles driven. Now that some of us are driving ZEVs and alternative (non-taxed) fuel cars, it makes sense for us to have to pay some kind of tax.

However, before they fine someone for using bio-diesel, they should have a simple means for him to pay the tax. It's stupid to have a tax that only retailers can collect, and then fine someone for not paying it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(briloop @ Jun 13 2007, 10:32 AM) [snapback]460921[/snapback]</div>

Hi Briloop,
I did the math myself because I know I will not drive the EV as much as our prius but I would rather pay 75.00 now vs the 500.00 then plus the 75.00.

Next year I am sure this will be revised due to the fact of the growing numbers of ev's and mine is only #38 here in Missouri, Jeff city region.

 

There are different ways to tax cars, not just through gas. Just that government is stupid, that is all.

Car Registration fee could play a big part. For states that require yearly auto check (like Texas), the mileage could be logged and forwarded to DMV to calculate on the car registration fee.

For states like CA that does not require yearly checks, then a vechicle weight and EPA tax chart could be used. I know people will complain about the "but I do not dirve my car much". But I still like it as for people that do not want to pay, they could use public transportation instead.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dipper @ Jun 14 2007, 10:46 AM) [snapback]461725[/snapback]</div>

I agree.

I would add, however, that until fairly recently, when alternative fuels began to appear, gasoline use was a fairly adequate measure of the wear and tear a car put on the roads, and was therefore a reasonable way to collect road taxes.

Times have changed, and taxation methods need to change.