Enough with the Band-Aids!

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton Co-Founder & Current President

When Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed legislation Friday to suspend Georgia's $0.33/gallon gasoline tax for 60 days, it was "Deja Vu all over again," as Yogi Berra would say.  Or as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young sang before many of you were born, "We have all been her before.  We have all been here before."  (Yeah, I'm old, but so what!?  Google it.)

Friday marked the fourth time Kemp has paused the tax at the pumps during his time as governor.  The previous three were the 2022 Russian attack on Ukraine, the 2023 inflation spike, and the devastation from Hurricane Helene in 2024.  In each instance, as prices for gasoline skyrocketed, the legislature and the governor stepped in to try and ease the pain at the pump.

Addressing his fellow senators on Friday regarding the suspension, Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, said “Hopefully this (conflict) will be resolved. But, in the meantime, we’re going to do what we can to help our citizens of Georgia have the lowest costs possible.”  Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, said “It’s a win for our constituents and will hopefully give them much-needed relief.”  But is this relief?  Or just a Band-Aid with political upside, but no real cure for what ails us?

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To show citizens of Georgia the "lowest costs possible,"  there are better solutions than artificially lowering fossil fuel prices for a couple of months. Georgia should be do as other states have done and help citizens transition to electric vehicles that

• cost less to fuel (free if you have rooftop solar),
• are less expensive to maintain, and
• are powered by an energy source (electricity) that isn't traded as a market commodity with extremely volatile prices during times of crisis. 

​Even though the US is the largest producer of oil the world has ever seen, even that can't buffer us from pain when the stuff we burn to move our cars and trucks is threatened by global conflict.  When international crude oil prices rise, domestic gasoline prices rise.  It's well past time to break our dependency on fossil fuels.

We recently chatted with Sustainable Newton members who already #DriveElectric to find out what life's been like for them during the current "energy crisis."

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Suspending the gasoline tax is a subsidy for Big Oil.  It pays the oil companies the higher prices they're demanding and it keeps drivers whole by siphoning off funds being collected to cover the cost of maintaining Georgia's roads. The state sends a message to drivers of even the most inefficient, gas-guzzling cars and trucks not to worry -- "we have your back."  AND, it also indirectly punishes drivers of the most efficient vehicles on the roads: EVs.

Did you know Georgia charges EV owners an annual fixed fee to offset the gas tax they don’t pay at the pump. The current fee of $213.70/year is equivalent to buying 648 gallons of gas at the pump.  With the average fuel efficiency of a light-duty passenger vehicle today being 33.3 MPG, an EV owner must drive at least 21,578 miles just to break even on the tax. Even though our state ranks near the top of the list nationally, the average Georgian drives less than 18,000 miles/year.

Someone driving only 10,000 miles in an EV registered in Georgia will end up paying the equivalent of $0.71/gallon with the fixed fee structure.  I drove 3,000 miles last year, which means I paid the equivalent of $2.37/gallon.  In most cases, EV drivers are paying more "gas tax" that drivers of gasoline and diesel vehicles.

And no, the governor did not sign a bill to suspend the tax on EV drivers.  Not on Friday, and not on the other three occasions that he suspended the gas tax.

I'm not arguing anyone should be forced to switch to an electric vehicle, and I understand that a spike in the price of gasoline hurts families who depend on their car or truck for employment and as a lifeline to accomplish other necessities of life. But driving electric has many benefits, as my colleagues point out in the videos above, and these clips as well.  We've been on this road of oil-dependence long enough now, that we should be helping people transition to a better solution, not making it easier for them to avoid doing it.

No matter who first said it (and it probably wasn't Einstein), the quote still rings true: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."