If Congress slaps new fees on electric vehicles, it likely would hurt efforts to cut planet-warming emissions and dampen adoption of clean cars and trucks, a new report warns.
Federal lawmakers are debating several such proposals. In a worst-case scenario, new EV fees could lead to as much as 230 million tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent pollution that might otherwise be eliminated, according to analysis from the environmental group Evergreen Action. That’s the equivalent of 61 coal-fired power plants.
The outcome is far from certain. Lawmakers are weighing a raft of proposals as they consider the next surface transportation bill, which would fund highways, public transit and other programs for the next five years. Some measures even would cut planet-warming gases, and the worst-case emissions scenario only would happen if Congress combined some of the EV fees that are now under consideration, the Evergreen Action report said.
“It’s such an erratic Congress that I think it’s important to just demonstrate the risk, especially when there isn’t a lot of bicameral coordination,” said Liya Rechtman, the lead author of the report and a transportation expert at Evergreen Action.
