{"id":28047,"date":"2017-03-09T13:03:56","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T19:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=28047"},"modified":"2017-03-09T13:03:56","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T19:03:56","slug":"proposed-electric-vehicle-fee-stirs-resentment-among-oklahoma-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/03\/09\/proposed-electric-vehicle-fee-stirs-resentment-among-oklahoma-owners\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Electric Vehicle Fee Stirs Resentment Among Oklahoma Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_28057\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28057\" alt=\"Edmond resident Jonathon Stranger in his 2013 Nissan Leaf, an all-electric car.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic3.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic3.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic3-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic3-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic3-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edmond resident Jonathon Stranger in his 2013 Nissan Leaf, an all-electric car.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>A bill passed by the state House of Representatives Wednesday would impose an annual fee on owners of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles in Oklahoma, and that\u2019s leaving some electric car owners feeling singled out.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/311559549&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>A gray 2013 Nissan Leaf sits in Edmond resident Jonathon Stranger\u2019s driveway.<\/p><p>\u201cThere\u2019s no gas. There\u2019s no motor oil,\u201d Stranger says. \u201cIt\u2019s the future.\u201d<\/p><p>The Oklahoma House voted 51-44 to approve <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oklegislature.gov\/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HB1449&Session=1700\">HB 1449<\/a>, legislation that would charge Stranger a $100 fee when he renews his Leaf\u2019s annual vehicle registration. For plug-in hybrid owners, like the plug-in Toyota Prius or Chevy Volt, the fee would be $30 a year. The measure is now pending in the Senate.<\/p><p>\u201cMy feeling on it is, obviously, we know the State of Oklahoma is tied to oil and gas,\u201d Stranger says. \u201cSo it\u2019s almost like: Our state makes blue shirts, and I decided to wear a green shirt so I\u2019m getting fined.\u201d<\/p><p>Stranger owns several restaurants in Oklahoma City and is doing well financially. For him, it\u2019s not the amount of the fee, but the principal behind it. Able Blakley, owner of Savory Spice Shop in Oklahoma City, feels the same way.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s a slap in the face,\u201d he says. \u201cIt really is.\u201d<\/p><p>Blakley has lived all over the country, in states where he says residents are incentivized to use alternative energy.<\/p><p>\u201cTo come home, where I grew up, and then buy an electric vehicle to try to do something positive, and then hear that a friend of yours wrote a bill that\u2019s trying to detract from that \u2014 it\u2019s a real bummer,\u201d Blakley says.<\/p><p>Sen. Stephanie Bice, R- Oklahoma City, co-authored the legislation. She did not respond to interview requests, but in a Twitter exchange with Blakely, she defended the measure.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AbleWorth\">@AbleWorth<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joewertz\">@joewertz<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/loganlayden\">@loganlayden<\/a> Yes but EVs don&#8217;t pay a gasoline tax which goes to help fund the roads and bridges we all drive on.<\/p><p>\u2014 Stephanie Bice (@stephaniebice) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stephaniebice\/status\/838893766475988993\">March 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><p>State Rep. Dustin Roberts, R-Durant, made a similar argument on the House floor Wednesday, and also noted that electric vehicle owners receive a <a style=\"font-size: 14px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/businesses\/plug-in-electric-vehicle-credit-irc-30-and-irc-30d\">big federal rebate<\/a>.<\/p><p>The proposed fee would be collected in lieu of the tax most Oklahoma motorists \u00a0pay when they put gasoline or diesel in their tanks \u2014 revenue that goes toward the state\u2019s transportation infrastructure.<\/p><p>\u201cRight now if you go buy an electric car you get a $7,500 rebate, and you don\u2019t have to pay into the infrastructure system that you\u2019re taking space up and tearing \u2014 the wear and tear on these roads,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p><p>Currently, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.caranddriver.com\/the-tax-man-cometh-these-10-states-charge-extra-fees-for-electric-cars\/\">10 states levy fees or taxes on electric vehicles<\/a>. The Oklahoma bill originally set the fee at $150, which would\u2019ve been the second highest in the nation. An amendment reduced the fee to $100, which should help appease the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments.<\/p><p>Eric Pollard, ACOG\u2019s Clean Cities Coordinator, says using electricity produced in Oklahoma helps reduce reliance on foreign oil.<\/p><p>\u201cElectricity, in ACOG\u2019s view, to power vehicles, is part of our region\u2019s effort in advancing energy independence,\u201d Pollard says.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_28058\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28058\" alt=\"Electric vehicle owner Able Blakley in his Oklahoma City spice shop. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic2.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic2-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/03\/STORY-3-8-EVFeePic2-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Electric vehicle owner Able Blakley in his Oklahoma City spice shop.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Most states don\u2019t impose any extra fees on electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. There simply aren\u2019t many electric cars on the road yet. In Oklahoma, there\u2019s about 1 electric car for every 5,000 gas-powered ones, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/energy.gov\/eere\/vehicles\/fact-876-june-8-2015-plug-electric-vehicle-penetration-state-2014\">2014 numbers<\/a> from the U.S. Department of Energy.<\/p><p>Pollard is concerned that a new fee could put an unfair burden on EV drivers.<\/p><p>\u201cIf you\u2019re paying more on utility bills to power your vehicles, you\u2019re also paying additional sales taxes on that, and some of that does go back to roads in our local communities,\u201d Pollard says.<\/p><p>Back at Savory Spice Shop, Able Blakley says he isn\u2019t paying a gas tax, but that doesn\u2019t mean he isn\u2019t paying his fair share.<\/p><p>\u201cI would also be interested to see where the tax I pay on electricity goes, because that\u2019s the fuel that we put in those,\u201d Blakley says. \u201cI plug it into my house, it comes off the grid, pay OG&E every month. I am paying a tax on my fuel, it\u2019s just not the same one.\u201d<\/p><p>And people who own plug-in hybrids, which use both electricity and gas, would pay a new $30 fee, in addition to the gas taxes they already pay, which critics of the bill see as a double tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bill passed by the state House of Representatives Wednesday would impose an annual fee on owners of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles in Oklahoma, and that\u2019s leaving some electric car owners feeling singled out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[698,348,239],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28047"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28078,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28047\/revisions\/28078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}