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US COVID-19 mitigation efforts resulting in significant decline in traffic, emissions and fuel-tax revenues

Green Car Congress

A new report from the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis has found that total US vehicle miles traveled (VMT) at the county and state level have declined by 61% to 90% following the various government stay-at-home orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fuel saved, tax revenue lost. billion per week.

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UC Davis report proposes mileage fee for EVs, maintaining fuel tax for ICEs to support road repairs

Green Car Congress

A research report submitted to the California Legislature this week by the University of California, Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies proposes switching EVs to a mileage-based road-funding fee (road user charge, RUC) while continuing to have gasoline-powered cars pay gasoline taxes. on-board diagnostic [OBD] devices).

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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.

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Study finds higher gasoline taxes do not disproportionately impact the poor, especially in developing countries

Green Car Congress

However, a new study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) finds that middle- and high-income earners are generally affected the most by gasoline taxes, especially in poor countries, rather than poor people. Petrol taxes are effective and actually don’t affect poor people disproportionally.

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UC Davis study: roadkill declines as COVID-19 continues

Green Car Congress

Fewer wild animals, including threatened mountain lions, are becoming roadkill during shelter-in-place orders, according to a study on three states from the University of California, Davis. Additional recent reports cover the impacts of COVID-19 mitigation on traffic accidents, greenhouse gas emissions and fuel tax revenues.

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Belfer Center Study Concludes Reducing Car and Truck GHG Emissions Will Require Substantially Higher Fuel Prices; Income Tax Credits for Advanced Alt Fuel Vehicles Are Essentially Ineffective at Reducing Sector Emissions

Green Car Congress

Direct transportation (fuel) taxes generate the greatest reductions in CO 2 emission from transportation, achieving CO 2 emissions at 86% of 2005 levels by about 2025. While CO 2 prices are equivalent to fuel taxes, CO 2 prices at their projected levels are far too small to create a significant incentive to drive less.

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Study Finds Government Mandates Superior to All Other Biofuels Policies, But Mixing With Subsidies Causes Adverse Effects; The Argument for a Direct CO2 Tax

Green Car Congress

A new cost-benefit analysis of biofuels policies by economists Harry de Gorter and David Just at Cornell University has concluded that government mandates for biofuels “ are clearly superior to all other policies, with few tradeoffs arising. biofuel policies that attempt to curb CO 2 without directly cutting energy use are clearly wasteful.

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