President Joe Biden’s drive to increase electric car use may unintentionally thwart his other urgent priority to restore the nation’s roads, bridges and transit systems by undercutting federal gasoline tax receipts.
That’s got U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg taking a serious look at an idea that’s drawn fierce opposition from privacy advocates and others: funding highway projects with a fee based on how many miles someone travels instead of how much gasoline they pump.
“Maybe more than at any point since the gas tax was instituted, it feels like so many different possibilities are on the table,” Buttigieg said in a recent speech to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
Biden has promised to roll out a large infrastructure package that is expected to incorporate ideas to boost the nation’s transportation and clean energy sectors now that Congress has passed his Covid relief bill.
“It not only creates jobs, but it makes us a hell of a lot more competitive around the world if we have the best infrastructure in the world,” he said after a March 4 meeting with Democratic lawmakers on the infrastructure topic at the White House.
EV Sales Boom in U.S.
Transportation is expected to be a big part of -- but not all of -- the likely infrastructure plan and mileage fees are being raised as a way to pay for some or all of that in a way that accommodates the rise of electric vehicles that Biden also hopes to see.
A vehicle-miles-traveled fee has been studied in the nation’s capital for years though previous versions have encountered resistance about forcing drivers to place transponders in their cars to keep track of mileage. But states that have experimented with pilot programs have found ways around that by letting motorists report odometer readings electronically or in-person, using plug-in devices or recording mileage with a smartphone app.
With the Biden administration preparing to begin a push for an infrastructure package that is expected to dwarf the just-passed $1.9 trillion Covid-relief bill in size, transportation advocates in Washington are more hopefully than ever that the idea’s time has come.
“People are talking about it more than have in the past, which is a good thing,” Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said in an interview.
“The vehicle fleet is trending toward electrification and the Biden administration is going prioritize this,” he said. “That’s going to force their hands a little bit because you’re not going to be able to collect the same amount of revenue as you do from gas and diesel vehicles.”