News-Record.com

Update (Dec. 17): The report is now available.
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I posted last month about a vehicle mile tax being floated by the state's 21st Century Transportation Committee, which officially released its final report of recommendations to lawmakers today (I'm trying to locate an online copy). The recommendation's don't seem to impress many people.

From the Wilmington Star-News (commenting on the draft recommendations):

A committee of designated thinkers has been pondering that very question and has a few suggestions, one of which should be quickly discarded: replacing the gas tax with a tax on the number of miles driven in North Carolina. Aside from a the Big Brother aspect, it would seem to pose a number of problems.

An odometer reading at the annual inspection presumably would determine the amount of the tax, but the 21st Century Transportation Committee has yet to explain how to distinguish between in-state and out-of-state miles. And what of the out-of-state vacationers, truckers and business travelers who cruise through North Carolina on the way somewhere else? Many of them currently pay the gas tax as they fill up, but it would be awfully difficult to track them down to pay by the mile.

The North Carolina Justice Center’s Budget & Tax Center says the committee presented a piecemeal approach that endorses pro-traffic congestion policies, glosses over critical issues, such as misallocation of resources, and doesn't flesh out how the vehicle miles tax would replace current revenue sources such as the gas tax.

“The report offers no consistent vision for how to move forward,” said Steve Jackson, a public policy analyst who focuses on transportation issues for the North Carolina Justice Center’s Budget & Tax Center. “Given how fundamental our transportation problems are in North Carolina, this is very disappointing. The policy solutions suggested are more 1955 than 2055.”

I'll post the report once I get a copy.

NC Mobile CARE will hold a symposium on May 6 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro to recognize efforts of North Carolinians to reduce mobile emissions and promote fuel diversity. The symposium will also feature a tour of the green hotel and keynote speaker David Morris, co-founder and vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. He will talk about "Driving our way toward energy independence." Tickets for symposium and luncheon are $20.

Find here a meeting summary for the Triad Mobile CARE Partnership, which met in Greensboro on March 4.

At these quarterly meetings, local government, business fleet managers, fuel and technology providers, environmental groups, non-profit organizations and concerned citizens discuss ways to address mobile emission reduction efforts through the use of alternative fuels and advanced transportation technologies.

This is the cutest little thing: Undriver licenses that were issued in Ballard, Wash., last year as a way to discourage automobile dependency (part of a Sustainable Ballard initiative). One woman writes about her experience for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

I often wonder if environmentalists, car manufacturers, politicians and others who believe that the production of hybrid, electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will solve our imminent transportation problems ever talk to real people. The people struggling to pay off their current gas-guzzlers, the folks who live next to junkyards (and don't want to see fields of abandoned and obsolete vehicles multiply) and those who whose prospects for affording a $20,000 Toyota Prius are slim.

In other words, who will buy these cars and what will we do with the millions of cars they replace?

Let me use myself as an example. I drive a 2003 Hyundai Elantra upon which I anticipate making car payments for the next year or so. I plan to drive the vehicle until at least 2013, giving me a few years without car debt. By the time the car conks out, I hope to have transitioned to a car-free lifestyle, but if I haven't I definitely want to pay for the next car with cash, regardless of the gas prices at that time. It makes no sense to me to have a $400 car payment to save some gas money when I can just be more judicious in choosing the places I drive to and have no car payment.

Now, if I can find a used Prius for, say, $5,000 at that time, then great.

Some groups out there that question whether the next-era vehicles we hear about are technologically feasible or economically scaleable, but their voices are not as loud as those heralding the dawn of hydrogen vehicles (which have been in development for about 30 years) and so forth.

One pickup truck marketed by hyrdogen fuel cell manufacturer Anuvu in 2003 cost $100,000! (I tried to access the company's Web site, but it doesn't work.) Another company called ZAP! has a three-wheeled sedan with top speeds of 40 mph for $11,500.

    It seems to be more environmentally-sound and less expensive to just convert vehicles to run on ethanol and biodiesel than to discard fuel-inefficient vehicles. The priority of car manufacturers is to make sure the production of vehicles benefits their bottom line, regardless of the shift in consumer preferences. Well, I argue that most consumers operate the same way. I need to save money on a net basis and if that means holding on to my Elantra as long as possible, then so be it.