Electric Car Road Tax

[Knuckle Dragger]

Calls mount to stop offshore wind project as more whales wash up dead: 'Need to take a very hard look at this'

Seafreeze fisheries liaison Meghan Lapp echoed calls for an investigation into whether offshore wind projects are harming marine life after seven dead whales washed ashore.

www.foxnews.com

 

[ULTM8Z]

 

[John Wright]

Ok, I'll bite....what is the link between the dead whales and the windmills?
...other than the timing of the wind surveys since 2015

 

[danbrennan]

Calls mount to stop offshore wind project as more whales wash up dead: 'Need to take a very hard look at this'

Seafreeze fisheries liaison Meghan Lapp echoed calls for an investigation into whether offshore wind projects are harming marine life after seven dead whales washed ashore.

www.foxnews.com

 

[danbrennan]

At some point in the future personal transportation may be outlawed, although hopefully not in my lifetime. Then an electric vehicle tax will become irrelevant ..

Norway Rethinks Its Incentive Package For Electric Cars

Electric cars in Norway may see their special privileges and tax advantages reduced under a plan by the road administration.

cleantechnica.com

"The move may be anathema to the association, but the larger point is that the world is drowning in motor vehicles and at some point, the reign of private cars will need to come to an end as part of the quest to tamp down carbon emissions from all sources. While electric cars don’t spew crud out of tailpipes, they still are responsible for plenty of emissions in the manufacturing phase. The proposals by the Norwegian road administration may foreshadow a coming public policy debate about the place of the private passenger car in daily life going forward."

 

[ULTM8Z]

Crazy... Our natural gas prices here in SoCal have gone from 65 cents per therm back in December of just last year to 344 cents per therm this month.

Mission accomplished, I guess depending on how you look at it...

All the GenZ'ers living in mommy and daddy's basement while fighting global warming on Twitter from behind their keyboards must be thrilled at the "progress".

Elderly people living on fixed incomes who are watching their home heating bills go up by ~500% in two months... yeah probably not so thrilled. Freeze your a$$ off or have money to buy food that also keeps getting more and more expensive... yeah that's gotta be a tough choice to make.

 

[Todd80Z28]

It's running 35 mph with a custom tune now that sport mode is unlocked. Had to sign a waiver to get that feature unlocked. Still haven't checked the range on a charge yet, but I've only charged it up one time since I did the conversion (was down to around 75% SOC), and this cart gets ridden daily, so "I think" the mileage is better. Hard to ride the thing 30 plus miles without leaving the farm and all of those steep hills.

John, I was thinking of this earlier today... you should mount a big solar panel on the top of that cart in place of the roof, and add a 1000-2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. You'd have a nice portable power station in addition to an unreasonably fast golf cart.

 

[John Wright]

John, I was thinking of this earlier today... you should mount a big solar panel on the top of that cart in place of the roof, and add a 1000-2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. You'd have a nice portable power station in addition to an unreasonably fast golf cart.

The cart is 48v so the solar panel would need a step up charge controller to get the charging voltage up above 53-54v to actually do any charging, I think the onboard charger is 56.5v. The solar panel idea has been thought through a few times and it's a lot of work for little gain when I can plug up to my camper and charge the cart in a few hours. I do use the camper for power in the house when the grid power goes down. They make a solar charge controller ( Genasun https://sunforgellc.com/genasun/ ) that takes solar panel voltage and steps it up, but math gets in the way and the dang amperage goes down to nearly nothing as the voltage steps up so it would take forever to charge that 48v 105ah battery. Trust me, I've given the solar option for the cart a lot of thought. My camper has enough solar on the roof to make it a better solution for keeping the cart topped off. I still would like to find a small 1500-2000w 48v pure sine wave inverter that would be robust enough to survive living in the battery compartment on the cart for the occasional need for 110v portable power around the farm.

 

[danbrennan]

Sort of coming back to the original topic of this thread, a pilot MBUF program is coming to Michigan,

"In the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Congress continued a modest federal program that offers states or groups of states the opportunity to get partial federal funding support to carry out pilot projects on how to implement a transition from per-gallon fuel taxes to per-mile user fees (MBUFs, referred to as road user charges—RUCs—in western states). Last month, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced the seven 2023 winners in the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives Program (STSFA)."

"Some of the projects are first-time statewide projects (Michigan and Oklahoma), while others are continuations of prior statewide projects (California, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Virginia). And one project is a continuation of multi-state efforts coordinated by The Eastern Transportation Coalition (TETCo). Both Michigan and Oklahoma will be designing and carrying out their first pilot project, recruiting volunteers to try out simulated per-mile charges as an alternative to the state fuel tax. Michigan will begin with a statewide survey of citizen perceptions of MBUF/RUC, which will help to inform the design and operation of the pilot test. Oklahoma’s voluntary pilot program will consider working with the state’s turnpike authority (due to its revenue-collecting expertise) and will partner with tribal nations (which may be a first for a state MBUF pilot)."

"The California Department of Transportation continues to build on what it has learned from previous pilot projects, with the new pilot focusing on methods of revenue collection and the behavioral changes that might result from two different rate structures. Hawaii DOT will build on its initial pilot that linked an annual RUC to annual vehicle inspections and vehicle registration renewal. The focus of Minnesota DOT will be on the potential of using built-in vehicle telematics as a way to collect mileage-fee revenue. And Virginia DOT will transition its initial voluntary MBUF program from a fixed fee to a per-mile charge."

"In the largest of the seven projects, the TET Coalition will work with seven of its 17 member states (Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) to build on its several previous pilots involving both passenger vehicles and trucks, in a multi-state environment. This organization has worked extensively with trucking companies and organizations, for which inter-state travel is critically important. Among other things, the new pilot will work on equity concerns, compliance and enforcement questions, privacy issues, and harmonization among states."

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

My guess is they will institute a per mile tax on everyone and never repeal the gas per gallon tax so they can double dip and force the IC people into their green new dream.