The U.S. national average price of diesel topped $6 a gallon in September for the first time ever, as fuel supply disruptions pushed up transportation costs in the country.
Two, the red fuel dye used in untaxed/offroad is aggressive and can be detected at extremely low concentrations, if dyed fuel has ever been in a tank it’s detectable for months if not years afterwards (depending on how much it gets refilled).
In other words, it fucks up the ability to tax diesel even long after the crisis is (theoretically/optimistically on Trump’s part) over. Considering that they could have just suspended the tax on non-dyed diesel and directed refineries to stop putting the dye in temporarily, but didn’t, one wonders if that was the real goal.
Absolutely fucks up the tax system. It would be a disaster for commercial trucking and I am betting you will not see widespread use of the untaxed fuel even if “allowed” as no operator wants to get on the wrong side of DOT after this is said and done.
This of course does not apply to light duty trucks and diesel cars where rednecks run red fuel in them almost all the time.
Hanlon’s razor has been getting an exceptional workout these days. It could just be that Trump is monumentally stupid and didn’t think about this at all.
Trump is monumentally stupid, but that doesn’t mean his Wormtongue-esque advisors are. Trump probably didn’t know red-dyed diesel existed before this; he definitely didn’t come up with the idea to let truckers use it himself.
During his first term I would consider this to be a more likely explanation, but second-term Trump has been doing a pretty good job of purging anyone with actual competence. He wasn’t happy with how they kept telling him what to do last time around.
We don’t tax fuel enough to maintain the roads as is. The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away. It also means we might have to shift to registration fees as the primary mechanism to fund roads, which we were already considering for electric cars but then we’re going down this road you might have to make it Universal to all vehicles, preferably increasing with vehicle weights
The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away.
Maybe, but more likely they’re just going to use more money from the general fund like they already do. Only 26% of the road infrastructure budget came from gas taxes to begin with. So yes, the funding would drop if they don’t make up the shortfall with other funds, but not as much as you think.
In other words, it fucks up the ability to tax diesel even long after the crisis is (theoretically/optimistically on Trump’s part) over. Considering that they could have just suspended the tax on non-dyed diesel and directed refineries to stop putting the dye in temporarily, but didn’t, one wonders if that was the real goal.
Absolutely fucks up the tax system. It would be a disaster for commercial trucking and I am betting you will not see widespread use of the untaxed fuel even if “allowed” as no operator wants to get on the wrong side of DOT after this is said and done.
This of course does not apply to light duty trucks and diesel cars where rednecks run red fuel in them almost all the time.
Hanlon’s razor has been getting an exceptional workout these days. It could just be that Trump is monumentally stupid and didn’t think about this at all.
Trump is monumentally stupid, but that doesn’t mean his Wormtongue-esque advisors are. Trump probably didn’t know red-dyed diesel existed before this; he definitely didn’t come up with the idea to let truckers use it himself.
During his first term I would consider this to be a more likely explanation, but second-term Trump has been doing a pretty good job of purging anyone with actual competence. He wasn’t happy with how they kept telling him what to do last time around.
Whether he is too dumb to realize it or not, another important point is that he probably does not care about future problems.
Why would he, he’s never been held accountable for anything before.
We don’t tax fuel enough to maintain the roads as is. The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away. It also means we might have to shift to registration fees as the primary mechanism to fund roads, which we were already considering for electric cars but then we’re going down this road you might have to make it Universal to all vehicles, preferably increasing with vehicle weights
Maybe, but more likely they’re just going to use more money from the general fund like they already do. Only 26% of the road infrastructure budget came from gas taxes to begin with. So yes, the funding would drop if they don’t make up the shortfall with other funds, but not as much as you think.