Electric cars face ‘punitive’ fees, new restrictions in many states

I don't know how anyone can genuinely believe that Republicans are for small government and say the competition is good when they're using government to stifle competition.
- If you know nothing you'll believe anything.
  
  Follow that with "Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”... and you start to get a feel for the playbook the GOP is using
  
  It's truly amazing how stupid they can be though. It probably exceeded all of our expectations.

These backward-ass clowns are going to be the bane of this world.
- In my ideal world, we'd have a full carbon tax as well as a vehicle weight tax, and we'd use part of that to fund more electrified public transit (e.g., trains, trams, trolleybuses) and bike infrastructure. Plus we need to actually legalize dense, walkable urbanism. The zoning codes and parking minimums in North America make it literally illegal to build anything dense, walkable, and transit-oriented across almost all the urban land, resulting in miles and miles of government-mandated sprawl.
  The future of sustainable urban is truly in public transit and micromobility -- car dependency just doesn't make any sense in cities, as no amount of electric cars can make up for the harm caused by sprawling, car-dependent land use. Electric cars are obviously less bad than ICE cars, but just swapping out ICE cars for electric is not actually financially, socially, or environmentally sustainable.
  We should still have electric cars for the use cases (e.g., rural areas) for which you truly do need them, but the vehicle weight arms race (especially for trucks and SUVs) is getting out of control and we need the electric cars we would still have to be much smaller and lighter like this. Fewer electric hummers, more electric kei trucks, more electric trains, more electric bikes.
  
  It shouldn’t be double but we all need to pay for the roads.
  only double would be a welcome change in the state of Ohio.
  Car cost = $31/year
  Truck (non commercial)=$46/year to $80/year
  Hybrid car = $131/year
  EV car = $231 year
  
  AFAIK even the heaviest tesla car has basically nothing on what a semi does to a road.
  
  A thousand Tesla's don't do as much damage as the daily 3 axle loaded up dump trucks with no registration driving back and forth all day long.
  
  Charge road use taxes by vehicle weight. Yes, electric cars are heavy, but so is the average American vehicle, because people seem to love their enormous trucks. If you have a Model 3 or a roadster, it’s actually lighter than the average.
  According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average weight of a car is around 4094 pounds. A small car weighs around 2600 pounds, while a large car weighs around 4400 pounds.
  Tesla Model X Plaid - 5,390 pounds
  Tesla Model X Standard Range - 5,185 pounds
  Tesla Model S Plaid - 4,766 pounds
  Tesla Model S Long Range - 4,561 pounds
  Tesla Model Y Long Range & Performance - 4,416 pounds
  Tesla Model 3 Long Range & Performance - 4,065 pounds
  Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus - 3,582 pounds
  Tesla Roadster - 2,723 pounds
  
  They could just take the money from fossil fuel subsidies. This way, you don’t give people a new reason to not get an EV and we reduce tax revenue used to support the fossil fuel industry.
- I would have gone with backward ass-clowns, but both are good.
- These backward-ass clowns are ~~going to be~~ the bane of this world.
- Ah you think downvotes are your ally? You merely adopted the downvotes. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the upvotes until I was already a boomer, by then it was nothing to me but turmoil!

"This law was bought for you by Big Oil and the Koch Brothers"
- Gooch is clearly a shill in their pockets

“We’re moving so fast to electric vehicles, we’re just making the problems worse,” said state Rep. Jim Gooch (R), the longtime chair of Kentucky’s House energy committee. Those problems are multiplying, he added, as public officials look to electrify government fleets — especially transit systems and school districts.
“I certainly don’t want to put my kids on a school bus that’s electric. I just don’t want to do it,” Gooch said. “And I’ll fight in any way I can to make sure that that’s not something Kentucky’s doing.”
What? Why would you not want your kids going on a bus that has zero exhaust? School busses that use diesel straight smell like crap and it's absolutely hot af in the south. After reading this quote I was like, this world is so fucked.
- Conservatism.
  
  It's just so backwards.
- He said he just doesn't want to, ok?
  
  A vehicle powered by electricity alone? Well it just ain't right.
- There's a guy who is definitely has a hoard of incandesant light bulbs in his garage.
- Kentucky
  That explains everything
- In the city where I live, almost all public transport buses are electric. Honestly for a bus it's so much better than diesel, they're quiet, don't vibrate and ride much smoother
  
  They can also leverage regen due to constant stopping, don't get high drag penalty due to low speeds, etc. seems like good application for EV. Makes no sense as you said.
- To add to that, does anyone here remember those bus fire drills that you had to do once a year?
  I remember having to walk a quarter mile away from the propane buses in case they blew. Much more boomy than the diesel or gasoline buses which would only burn you to death!
- I'll tell you why; because oil lobbyists paid him to be against EVs and he has no actual reason to be against EVs.
- He's a conservative. He wants to conserve his oil lobbyists payout.

Fuck this shit, but also did anyone else do a double take when they read this?
“It’s a barrier to adoption,” said Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, a trade group.
I had to look him up.
- Oh no sir, I must say you're wrong. I'm Gal Bore, absolutely no relation whatsoever to the very handsome former vice president.

Supporters say it ensures every driver pays their fair share. But the fee is nearly double what an average driver would pay in taxes at the pump, according to consumer advocates.
Sounds like the foundation for legal challenges from EV manufacturers.

Can we just invest in public transit while taxing the fuck out of personal vehicles as well as cease subsiding oil, ffs?
- That wouldn't work in the vast majority of the US, which is very spread out.
  
  Land doesn't ride in cars, people do.
- How about fuck off and spend your own money on shitty transit instead of wasting taxpayer money on it while restricting freedom?
  
  Freedom to get stuck in traffic >>>>
  
  You realize we subside the oil industry with our taxes right?
  Edit:
  Also

I live in one of these states that charges $100 for hybrids annually. Annoying as hell but I save so much on gas that it's worth it. I get the argument that gas taxes pay for road maintenance, but this whole thing isn't going to be sustainable in the long run.
- The taxes should probably be based on some combination of usage and gross vehicle weight. People driving more with heavy vehicles ought to pay a larger share of road maintenance. A gas tax somewhat handles this since people with larger vehicles who drive more will use more gas.
  But the gas taxes don't even cover all of the money spent on maintaining/upgrading the roads. Roads are very expensive especially when you have these large highway interchange projects. We should really be trying to get people away from driving cars and onto transit, biking, walking etc. as much as possible
  
  But the gas taxes don’t even cover all of the money spent on maintaining/upgrading the roads
  This is especially true where I live, because our state police are getting money from the DOT to help police small towns who can't afford their own.
  I imagine they'll start caring more about road maintenance when they're so bad nobody can drive fast enough to get a speeding ticket.
  
  But the gas taxes don’t even cover all of the money spent on maintaining/upgrading the roads
  They would if we stopped wasting money on entirely unnecessary projects and worthless maintenance.
- Except the argument that gas taxes pay for road maintenance is total fucking bogus when you realize how much is spent on entirely unnecessary road maintenance just because of city/state governments in bed with construction companies.

State lawmakers imposed the new fee on EVs this spring to replace gasoline taxes lost to the switch to battery-powered vehicles
This is a good thing, but poorly-implemented. Should instead be tied to mileage driven.
- Some function of axle weight and mileage would probably be the best combination
  
  Or recognize the roads and related infrastructure as a public good and use general funds to pay for it instead of leaning into a user pay model.

Humans can ruin anything

- Historically speaking. This was always going to happen. Tribalism, feudalism, capitalism. Agrarians to industrialists to technology. When you look at it this way, you begin to understand that humans are doing exactly what humans do. Given enough time, we would eventually solve all the world’s problems. Unfortunately, the universe is fickle, and time is not on our side because of climate change. We cannot educate ourselves en masse fast enough to save ourselves. Do what you can. Live your best life. Educate yourself if you want. But trust me, finding the answers to things doesn’t help. It can help you find peace though. Love is the answer, it always was.
  
  To me it seems like a few corrupt humans fucking the rest over. Love might be an answer to some things, but it sure isn't the answer to everything. It's like king-kong is about to step on your face. Do you hug your family and declare your love, or do you cut off his legs? If they can fight, so should we. There's nothing more they'd love then all of us burying our heads in the sand. Id bet the world would be a lot worse if it wasn't for the people that fought before us.

The real issue is the energy grid as more people move to electric cars. California already has rolling blackouts. What happens when millions more EVs start recharging?
- Wish I knew how to ride a horse.
  
  Then you'll just get oat blackouts.

- Let me introduce you to collapse.
  
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