Regular Legal Insurrection readers will recall that I have been tracking the slow-motion collapse of the great electric vehicle experiment for years.
I reported on the Biden administration’s laughably failed promise on tens of thousands of charging stations.
Blue states slammed the brakes on California-style EV mandates once the math simply stopped computing, while Ford took a staggering $19.5 billion hit as it zapped production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning.
Finally, there was a serious market reckoning that saw EV registrations plunge 41% ry after federal tax credits were finally yanked.
In short: the government picked a winner, forced it on the American people, and the American people said: “No, thank you.”
Now, with EV ownership having been subsidized, mandated, and cheered by the green-energy zealots for the better part of a decade, Congress has decided that EV drivers ought to start paying for the roads they use, which is something every gasoline driver has quietly done at the pump all along.
As my colleague Mary Castain noted earlier this week, bipartisan House legislation introduced this week would impose a $130 annual fee on electric vehicle owners and a $35 fee on plug-in hybrid drivers, rising incrementally to $150 and $50, respectively, with the revenue directed at the Highway Trust Fund.
I think Legal Insurrection readers will be shocked to discover green energy advocates are deeply unhappy with this potential new rule.
Albert Gore III, the son of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, serves as the Executive Director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA). He is unhappy with this development.
But auto industry and environmental groups said the fee was substantially higher than the average fuel taxes paid by owners of gasoline cars. All electric vehicle owners would pay the same flat rate, whereas owners of vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel pay more if they drive more.The fees make it harder for people to escape soaring fuel prices by buying an electric vehicle, said Albert Gore III, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, an industry group whose members include Tesla, Rivian and Lucid. His group estimated that most Americans paid $73 to $89 a year in federal fuel taxes.Sales of used electric vehicles, which cost about the same to buy as similar gasoline-powered vehicles, have soared after the war in Iran raised fuel prices about 50 percent.“This unduly penalizes people for making that choice,” Mr. Gore said. “I don’t argue that the number should be zero, but the number should be fair.”
Ironically, the peril is so great to the green energy cultists that they are now complaining about affordability and have prices. This complaint comes from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):
“This legislation is a punch in the gut to the millions of Americans struggling to pay higher prices at the pump.“With Americans demanding more affordable transportation options as gasoline tops $4.50 a gallon this bill would impose an onerous new fee on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, while slashing investments in new EV chargers.
Hot Air’s Beege Welborne takes issue with how the elite media are presenting this development:
I love the verbiage: EV drivers could be FORCED to pay.Oh, really? Nothing like what American taxpayers were FORCED to pay to develop and manufacture these things, not to mention finance the handsome subsidies to both the car companies and the consumer to get someone – ANYONE to buy the damn things.And now we’re going to whine about having a yearly, tiny little $10 or so a month fee after all the bragging about not paying for gas, ete. that these insufferable snots do?Gas taxes pay for the roads EVs drive on that EVs do not and have never paid for.
What we are witnessing isn’t some great injustice visited upon virtuous EV owners, but an overdue collision with economic reality.
After years of subsidies, mandates, media cheerleading, and regulatory muscle-flexing, the bill has finally come due. Suddenly, the same crowd that insisted EVs were the inevitable future is aghast at the notion of paying a modest share for the infrastructure they use.
The irony is rich: the “fair share” rhetoric cuts both ways, and now that it does, the enthusiasm for it is fading fast.
It turns out Americans weren’t rejecting EVs out of ignorance or obstinacy. Rather, they were rejecting a top-down experiment that never made practical or financial sense.
We will see if the proposal is actually passed by the US Senate, which tends not to support matters that are practical or fiscally sensible.
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