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Trump’s DOT pick wants EV owners to pay to use roads
Sean Duffy, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Transportation, has expressed his opinion on electric vehicle (EV) owners being required to pay to use roads. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Duffy stated that he thinks EV owners should pay to utilize roads.
Federally funded road repairs are mainly financed by taxes collected on diesel and gasoline. This means that EVs do not contribute to fuel tax revenues since they do not consume gas, which means they don’t contribute to the funding of these repairs. Some argue that this creates a financial gap.
The Department of Transportation does not have the authority to make such a change unilaterally. The agency would be required to work with Congress in order to pass new legislation authorizing taxes or fees. For example, it could potentially amend the Highway Revenue Act, which was passed in 1956 and establishes a federal fuel tax. Currently, this is set at 18.3 cents per gallon.
Lawmakers would also need to devise a framework for implementation that could involve measuring and reporting EV mileage or electricity consumption. This would be a technological hurdle. Moreover, such a fee might face strong opposition from environmental advocates as well as automakers.
In certain states, EV owners are currently required to pay to utilize roads in order to compensate for the fact that they do not contribute to fuel tax revenues. Some, like Georgia and Illinois, charge a flat fee (and in Illinois’s case, that fee is higher than what owners of gas-burning cars pay). Other states like Utah charge based on weight or mileage, which would be tracked by the state.
Duffy’s statement is part of a broader politicization of electric vehicles from the incoming Trump Administration. Trump has framed EVs as a symbol of liberal policies and has threatened to repeal the EV tax credits that were included in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
In contrast, Trump has focused on coal and oil during his first term; he also rolled back the Obama-era Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards aimed at assisting the adoption of EVs and hybrids.
Source: techcrunch.com
