Gasoline Shortage Summer 2021

[121gigawatts]

Exactly!

Here in Canada/Quebec they are starting to say: "Hey wait, you guys driving EVs, you don't pay gas tax anymore, and those taxes are used to fund road infrastructure and maintenance..."

And now they are starting to say "we should put an incremental tax at purchase time on EV to compensate the fact that they are not contributing to the gas tax"

OHHHH brother!

Atlanta, GA here. There's a $233 annual fee for owning an electric vehicle. That's on top of the $20 annual tag, and 35 fee for the Alternative Fuel Vehicle tag.

They're just mad they're not collecting their 15 cents per gallon.

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[ARK]

Atlanta, GA here. There's a $233 annual fee for owning an electric vehicle. That's on top of the $20 annual tag, and 35 fee for the Alternative Fuel Vehicle tag.

They're just mad they're not collecting their 15 cents per gallon.

To be fair, most states already could use significantly more road funding and EV adoption sends this backwards with the total lack of gas tax.

We might say politicians should delay this until EVs are a little more widely adopted because it’s also important to encourage EV adoption, but the public at large is not rationale like that.

If EVs become popular and people get used to very low EV operating taxes then whichever politician eventually has to pull the trigger and introduce an EV road tax will get pummeled for it no matter how bad road finances have become.

 

[dbsb3233]

They're just mad they're not collecting their 15 cents per gallon.

Mad that you're using the roads but not paying to fund them like other vehicles, you mean? Yes.

 

[121gigawatts]

I knew it was somewhere around there.

To be fair, most states already could use significantly more road funding and EV adoption sends this backwards with the total lack of gas tax.

We might say politicians should delay this until EVs are a little more widely adopted because it’s also important to encourage EV adoption, but the public at large is not rationale like that.

If EVs become popular and people get used to very low EV operating taxes then whichever politician eventually has to pull the trigger and introduce an EV road tax will get pummeled for it no matter how bad road finances have become.

Perhaps it's worth reviewing the way the roads are managed and funded. Instead of a "gas tax", we could switch to a levy like the EV's have to help even it out. Everyone pays X amount regardless of car.

Mad that you're using the roads but not paying to fund them like other vehicles, you mean? Yes.

They're already charging $232 for owning an EV. Georgia charges 34.5 cents per gallon. An average driver does 12,500 miles, with an average 25 miles per gallon, that's 500 gallons per year. Totals to $172.5.

As an EV driver, how is it fair to pay almost $60 more per year (or 34.493% more) in a levy than an average driver?

 

[121gigawatts]

Not in every county. GA like many states has a huge electric membership cooperative (emc's). Many of which do not have either the charger rebate, or special charging rates.

 

[dbsb3233]

They're already charging $232 for owning an EV. Georgia charges 34.5 cents per gallon. An average driver does 12,500 miles, with an average 25 miles per gallon, that's 500 gallons per year. Totals to $172.5.

As an EV driver, how is it fair to pay almost $60 more per year (or 34.493% more) in a levy than an average driver?

So it's the $60 you're upset about rather than the $232? That's fair. $172 seems about right.

Of course, there's still no federal gas tax equivalent, so that's still an advantage. Not that the state should just take it instead though.

 

[Eraser]

Everything you said about "the average joe" is spot on. Unfortunately. While it would be ideal to roll all the incentives into "cash on the hood", there are powerful interests and members of government who intentionally want the incentives to be hard to use and/or discontinued altogether.

The American Petroleum Institute managed to keep lead in gasoline for decades after it was proven harmful, and that wasn't even an existential threat to them. You can be assured that they will do absolutely everything they can to delay their demise.

The cable companies basically pivoted to becoming ISPs (dumb pipes) since people are moving away from cable services. If the oil companies were smart they would have hedged their bets and cornered the market on the batteries. Then they could milk the system from both ends.

I don't think gasoline will be going anywhere in our lifetime. Reduction in gas use will go down for sure, cost will rise much faster as a result (counter intuitive I know). Even with some states banning new ICE vehicles in the next 10-15 years I don't think that alone will really make a difference. People will buy used, or go across state lines. If the incentives continue to be a roadblock the price of the cars needs to get down to at least the mid 20k range (before incentives).

 

[dbsb3233]

The cable companies basically pivoted to becoming ISPs (dumb pipes) since people are moving away from cable services. If the oil companies were smart they would have hedged their bets and cornered the market on the batteries. Then they could milk the system from both ends.

I don't think gasoline will be going anywhere in our lifetime. Reduction in gas use will go down for sure, cost will rise much faster as a result (counter intuitive I know). Even with some states banning new ICE vehicles in the next 10-15 years I don't think that alone will really make a difference. People will buy used, or go across state lines. If the incentives continue to be a roadblock the price of the cars needs to get down to at least the mid 20k range (before incentives).

Yep. Actually oil/gas companies do hedge their bets, quite a bit, in other areas.

Their crude oil volumes will go down, but you're right that oil will still be in heavy use for decades. Less will go to making gasoline and diesel, but there's many other products that use crude oil as feedstock (plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, asphalt, jet fuel, etc etc etc). Plus natural gas is very much in demand, and will be for decades. And many things will still use gasoline and diesel, especially heavy construction equipment. Ships use a ton of it too. And airplanes use a lot of jet fuel.

Those that think the growth of EVs equates to "no more drilling" are sadly mistaken.

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