Letter to Dr. John Holdren, Director, Office of Science and technology Policy
Dear Dr. Holdren:
State and Federal gasoline taxes average about fifty cents a gallon, The funds are primarily used for highway and bridge construction and maintenance. A driver of a gasoline or Diesel fuel powered car may end up paying upwards of five hundred dollars a year in taxes.
But what about drivers of plug-in electric cars? They pay no taxes equivalent to gasoline taxes, yet enjoy the privilege of driving on highways and across bridges that others pay to build and maintain.
This is not fair by any measure, particularly because many drivers are affluent and pay as much as $100,000 for an electric car. (see Tesla).
Plug-in electric cars are very inefficient due to the low thermodynamic efficiency of fossil fuel power plants, which supply the major part of the power to the grid. Whereas a modern motor car has an efficiency approaching forty per cent, the efficiency of grid powered electric cars is in the mid-twenties. Moreover, they have a high carbon footprint.
All of the above could be solved with on-board power generation, using a biodiesel operated generator. It is 100 year old technology. Diesel electric locomotives have been around almost that long. Such automobiles would have a near zero carbon footprint.
Chevrolet Volt 2 is almost there, needing only to replace its generator with a biodiesel engine.
GM could offer the first near-zero carbon footprint automobile.
This entire issue needs attention. Why isn’t the EPA doing its job effectively? Correspondence
with them elicited only the comment that I am probably correct and that eventually the auto companies will wake up. Meantime, the tax problem remains unsolved.
Sincerely,
Edward Hujsak
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