Sept. 25, 2020 – California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he has directed the state to ban gasoline-powered cars beginning in 15 years. The new executive order aims to eliminate new models of traditional cars and put more vehicles powered by clean technologies such as fuel cells and batteries on California’s roads. I get that. But, what about gasoline taxes that go into the highway trust fund for the express purpose of construction and repair of infrastructure? In California the state excise tax on gas is 50.5 cents per gal. How much of that money is going to go away now? Answer: a lot. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. If we are going to make a move to electric vehicles, we have to find a way to tax the charging of the cars that use the roads, because electric cars may be good for the environment, but they do the same amount of damage to the roads they drive upon.
California’s Electric Car Problem
