Washington General Assembly Passes Bill Getting Rid Of Fossil Fueled Vehicles, Including A Tax

So, when does the Washington state government give up the use of fossil fueled vehicles for state business? Stop the use of fossil fueled flights for state employees on government business? Stop using fossil fueled vehicles for the General Assembly, including their own personal use? Oh, right, this will only really affect the plebes

Washington state passes bill with goal to phase out gasoline cars

Washington state lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday setting a target to stop sales of gasoline-fueled vehicles there beginning in 2030, five years sooner than California.

The target is not a firm mandate and is contingent on the state adopting a tax on vehicle miles traveled, a measure to help pay for new transportation infrastructure, according to the text of the bill.

The move by the Pacific Northwest state comes as efforts to boost adoption of electric vehicles are accelerating over concerns about fossil fuels’ contribution to climate change.

Residents would not be allowed to go to, say, Idaho, and buy a fossil fueled vehicle as they won’t be allowed to register it in Washington. Good luck actually running the state and businesses. They’ll see a large exodus from the state, eroding the tax base

Washington’s 2030 electric vehicle goal would kick in once three-quarters of the state’s registered vehicles are subject to a so-called road usage charge, according to the bill’s text.

The legislation must be signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee before becoming law. Inslee’s office did not immediately respond to a question on whether he would sign it.

Of course there’s a tax. There’s always a tax, right? I’ll come back to that in a minute. As for Inslee, this stuff might be popular in theory, but, in practice, Inslee dropped out of the Democratic primaries as he was barely getting any support as the “climate change candidate”. His entire campaign was based on it, and no one cared.

Washington-based environmental activist group Coltura called the passage of the bill a victory for the fight against climate change, saying it would accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.

Nah. Most people can’t afford them. Even tiny ones. And then the GA will raise taxes because all that tax on fossil fuels will be gone.

(CleanTechnica) Washington state’s Clean Cars 2030 bill just passed both houses of the state legislature. If implemented (there are some catches), the bill would put Washington ahead of all other states and many other countries in terms of how fast they’ll require new light vehicles to be zero-emission.

The key section of the bill says:

Sec. 6. (1) Once a road usage charge, or
equivalent fee or tax based on vehicle miles traveled, is in effect
in the state of Washington with at least 75 percent of the registered
passenger and light duty vehicles in the state participating, then a
goal is established for the state that all publicly owned and
privately owned passenger and light duty vehicles of model year 2030
or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in Washington state
be electric vehicles.

You’ll notice the big catch in that. The electric vehicle requirement doesn’t kick in unless 75% of registered passenger and light duty vehicles are being charged by the mile for road taxes. According to Autoweek, this hasn’t been implemented in the state at all, and would require separate legislation to be passed, but there is a pilot project underway that the state intends to use to learn enough to create a good by-the-mile taxation system.

What such a measure would look like in its final form is unknown. I’ve seen some state proposals that want to place a GPS tracker in all vehicles, but that obviously raises the ire of citizens with privacy concerns. It may be that an annual odometer check or possibly a system where citizens self-report and are randomly audited can achieve the same results. Either way, it’s going to be necessary to have such a system in place if no new vehicles in the state are using gas or diesel, because they wouldn’t have enough money to maintain the roads otherwise.

Basically, people will be taxed on their vehicles for purchase and property tax, then on the gasoline they purchase, then on how many miles they drive (say, what about the state government? And local and county governments?). And, once that system is in place (you can bet they’ll go with a GPS tracker or something), it will apply to those EVs, and the tax will have to rise quite a bit to, again, cover the loss of tax revenue from gasoline. It’s already happening, as road taxes have increased due to the push for hybrids and the lower revenue from gas taxes. Many states are increasing direct taxation on EVs and hybrids to cover the revenue loss. All that money you’ll supposedly save will then just go to government.