Nobody likes paying gas taxes, and that seems particularly true for drivers who don't buy gas—such as those who drive electric cars. As legislators have begun to notice more electric cars on the roads, more of them have become concerned about their drivers not buying gas—and so not paying any gas taxes. According to a new editorial by... 17 states have passed extra fees on EVs; is that fair?
Nobody likes paying gas taxes, and that seems particularly true for drivers who don't buy gas—such as those who drive electric cars. As legislators have begun to notice more electric cars on the roads, more of them have become concerned about their drivers not buying gas—and so not paying any gas taxes. According to a new editorial by...
Five years ago, an electric-utility think tank issued a dire warning to its members: Your century-old business model is ending. The continually falling costs of renewable energy generation, especially solar panels, would begin to erode utilities' business from its most profitable customers, the study said. Now, in Germany—hardly known for...
The Trump administration hasn't been coy about trying to champion traditional fossil fuels while downplaying the importance and falling costs of renewable energy. Earlier this year, Department of Energy secretary Rick Perry, previously governor of fossil-fuel producer Texas, called for a 60-day review of the United States' energy grid. The stated...
The prospect of bans on gasoline and diesel new-car sales have become a much greater threat not only to automakers but to oil companies as well, now that China has said it is studying such a move. The world's largest car market has not announced any timetables for such a ban, which will likely be implemented to give domestic automakers the maximum...
It was quaint and adorable when Norway did it, saying it would end sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025. The Netherlands followed suit, with little fanfare. More recently, France and the U.K. have enacted various forms of bans on non-electrified vehicles, on varying schedules. Now that China has said it's considering timetables...
It was quaint and adorable when Norway did it, saying it would end sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025. The Netherlands followed suit, with little fanfare. More recently, France and the U.K. have enacted various forms of bans on non-electrified vehicles, on varying schedules. Now that China has said it's considering timetables...
General Motors CEO Mary Barra met with reporters in Shanghai on Friday, discussing the company's vision of the future: "a world with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion." The company doesn't think, however, that China should be quite so hasty in pushing to ban cars that actually do have tailpipe emissions, however. Barra argued...
Shortly after announcing his intention to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, President Donald Trump declared the final week in June to be "Energy Week." In a later speech, Trump called for an energy revolution in the U.S. and vowed to "unleash American energy" to help the country reach its full potential. However, portions of...
The White House declared this past week "Energy Week" and offered up a few key points on which the Trump administration plans to focus to unleash what it calls a new American dominance in energy. However, neither the initiatives nor the proposed policy changes hone in on where the world is heading: renewable energy, free of fossil fuels. Instead...
The "war on coal" has long been a talking point of politicians running for elected office in the state of Kentucky. The state was once home to a booming coal industry that has floundered over the years as cheaper fracked natural gas has supplanted coal for electricity generation. The state's coal industry job losses have thus been due to the surge...
It is widely accepted in the energy industry that U.S. coal production will fall as a percentage of the total electric grid mix. That has little to do with its high carbon footprint per kilowatt-hour generated; it is largely due to far greater supplies of much cheaper fracked natural gas. It is also widely accepted that renewable energy sources...
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has gone on record saying publicly what most analysts have discussed privately: the notion that Washington can direct the energy market back towards coal is wrong. In fact, Bloomberg is willing to go further: he believes that the U.S. can still meet the reductions set forth in the Paris climate treaty...
The new U.S. president, Donald Trump, is working to eradicate every Obama policy to limit the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Having variously called the science behind climate change a "Chinese plot" to hurt the U.S. and referred to it using an expletive for bovine excrement, this shouldn't come as a surprise. He pledged to do...
While political control in Washington has changed, the debate over a mandate to blend specific volumes of ethanol into the U.S. fuel supply has not. Since its passage in 2007 as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act, the ethanol-mandating Renewable Fuel Standard has attracted controversy. Its requirement of specific volumes of ethanol...
Under the administration of President Barack Obama, the U.S. joined the rest of the world and took a leading role in global efforts to avert irreversible climate change. But that seems unlikely to continue under the Trump administration, which has nominated climate-science deniers to numerous key positions. Just yesterday, the head of Trump's EPA...
From the perspective of both renewable-energy advocates and electric utilities, grid-scale energy storage offers many potential benefits. By storing energy in battery packs for later use, energy storage can make intermittent renewable sources like solar and wind into more reliable forms of power. It also helps utilities "balance" the gird by...
If there were any doubt that U.S. policy on climate change would change drastically under President Donald Trump, it should have been laid to rest shortly after noon yesterday. Following inauguration ceremonies for the 45th president of the United States, the Obama White House website was replaced with an entirely new site for the Trump White...
While renewable-energy use has grown substantially over the last few years, the regulatory environment remains volatile. Some states have worked hard to stimulate renewable energy, supporting infrastructure projects and offering incentives to consumers who install home solar arrays. But others have tried to restrict renewable energy, often at the...