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Congressionally-created Commission Recommends Mileage Tax Instead of Fuel Tax for Transportation Infrastructure Financing

Green Car Congress

A bi-partisan Congressionally-created commission has recommended a shift from motor fuel taxes to direct fees charged to transportation infrastructure users—i.e., a federal mileage fee—as a way to reform financing of the US transportation infrastructure. The nation faces a crisis.

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Mn/DOT assessing potential for mileage-based user fee to replace fuel tax; Battelle conducting technology assessment

Green Car Congress

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) will recruit 500 people from Wright and Hennepin counties to take part in research to test technology that could someday be used to collect a mileage-based user fee (MBUF) in lieu of a gasoline tax. These funding sources support construction and maintenance of the highway system.

Fuel Tax 262
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Belfer Center report calls for policymakers to begin taking steps to change policies for funding US transportation infrastructure

Green Car Congress

The US has up to now adhered to the user-fee principle in financing transportation infrastructure—i.e., users pay for the construction and maintenance of roads via a federal fuel tax. In the meantime, cars and trucks have become more fuel-efficient. States use similar mechanisms. —Huang et al.

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Proposed US Transportation Reauthorization Plan Links Greenhouse Gas Reductions to Transportation Planning

Green Car Congress

Among the proposals in the new US highway and transportation funding reauthorization bill, outlined by House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James L. in a press conference last week, is the linkage of transportation planning with greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Oberstar (D-Minn.) Mica (R-Fla.)

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National Academies report finds US interstate highways need major overhaul; calls for 20-year blueprint for action

Green Car Congress

The report calls for a 20-year “blueprint for action,” which includes creating an “Interstate Highway System Renewal and Modernization Program,” increasing the federal fuel tax to help pay for it, and allowing tolls and per-mile-charges on more interstate routes. —Norman Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp.

Congress 246
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CEPS task force report identifies tightening emissions standards as key policy to hit EU 60% reduction in transport GHG; full life-cycle emissions optimal metric

Green Car Congress

The report from a task force assembled by the CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies), a Brussels-based think tank, on European transport policy has concluded that the EU’s goal of a 60% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction in the transport sector in 2050 compared to 1990 levels is possible, but at a cost.

Emissions 210
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IEA technology and policy reports outline paths to halving fuel used for combustion-engined road transport in less than 40 years

Green Car Congress

The policy package includes a new fuel economy readiness index, which measures the extent to which countries have implemented steps that will fully exploit the potential of existing fuel economy technologies and maximise their use in vehicles. This gap can be up to 20% and must be reduced to minimize actual fuel use.