Oklahoma Stalls EV Growth By Imposing A $100 Tax
The oil and gas lobby is at war on multiple fronts with renewable energy and electric vehicles. The stone age did not end with the exhaustion of stones for use, and the oil and gas age will not add with the depletion of all the oil and gas resources found in the world over. It will end with the development of new technology which is already in place. The power sector is already finding solar and wind energy to meet or even beat the prices of fossil fuel powered plants. Already solar and wind energy account for a large share of the new power capacity being installed in developed countries and soon this trend will occur in developing countries as well.
This marks the end of the road for coal and also sharply reduces the demand for natural gas. Oil is now in the crosshairs of electric vehicles which is rapidly gaining traction around the world. Governments have realized the wave of the future and are now investing heavily to increase the adoption of electric vehicles. Many governments give tax incentives to people for buying EVs, as this technology is still more expensive than normal ICE engines powered cars. China has made it a national priority but U.S. is now falling behind, as the oil and gas lobby pushes to keep the country in the medieval age.
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Oklahoma has come out with new legislation by which electric vehicles owners will have to pay a $100 tax. This is a retrograde step as most countries incentivize using electric vehicles by giving rebates between $5000 to as high as $30,000. A new technology has to be pushed in order for it to compete with old established technologies. The transport sector is also one of the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide and cutting it down through electric vehicles is one of the main goals of the climate change fights. Given that Oklahoma is one of the main producers of oil and gas in U.S, it does not take a genius to figure out that the senators were bought by the lobby to implement such an irrational and stupid legislation. Given that global penetration of electric vehicles is less than 0.1%, this tax will not add any substantial revenues for the state but only create a hurdle in the adoption and add to the total cost of ownership.
Google+The Oklahoma bill originally set the fee at $150, which would’ve been the second highest in the nation. An amendment reduced the fee to $100, which should help appease the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments.
