Your “Rotational Thursday With BFC” Open Thread

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^{(And clearly I have no idea what day it is)}

Last week, Litre teed up a question to me, which is exactly how I predicted these alternating Thursdays would go, and they absolutely haven’t.

“As you know I live in the political equivalent to Florida. It was floated about this week that the provincial government may tax EVs because they hurt the economy or some shit. The link is to one of the whackadoodle RW rags in this province. Whaddaya think of that BfC????”

I have thoughts. First of all, fuck Florida and it’s false flag fathead of a governor, Rhonda Santis.

Secondly, the logic around EV taxes is based on the fact that errybody (north and south of the border) uses gasoline taxes to fund highway projects. So the argument is “well EVs use the highways, they should pay their fair share rabble rabble.”

Heres where that argument falls apart —

1) Honestly, it’s a dumb way to fund transportation projects. The highway trust fund shouldn’t fluctuate based on vehicle miles traveled. And it’s typically regressive.

2) Virtually every state has an EV “registration fee” and you’ll be SHOCKED to hear that red states have tended to set very high EV registration fees, and there’s a new wave of state legislatures adding taxes per kWh dispensed. It’s not about making EVs pay, it’s an explicit attempt to discourage EV purchases/leases by adding to the upfront cost of a vehicle whose main financial benefits come in lifetime total cost of ownership savings.

3) And if we’re talking rationality (not a thing anymore), then internalizing the externality of tailpipe emissions and quantifying the other benefits of EVs….then they should be incented rather than taxed. Oh, and the only way they “hurt” the economy is if the only part of the economy you care about is oil production. It’s especially dumb when gas taxes are being cut at the same time because you’re almost acknowledging point one but then very clearly making it about point two.

Now normally, I’d be linking to articles up the wazoo for you all, but I’m actually roaming around New England this week and if all is going to plan, I’m completely offline today (having prewritten and scheduled a briefer than usual post, you’re welcome). I am sure that I will make up for it with grandiose verbosity in my next open thread post.

In the meantime, thanks for the question, Litre. What non-oenophile professional topic would you want to get into on the site?

What’s on TV tonight?

GWS had a bye week last week, which I found annoying. YMMV. Geelong and Sydney will play in the witching hour (or thereabouts) and then GWS takes on Melbourne late Saturday night in what will be a very challenging match for them.

In North American sports, I guess baseball (check your local listings or watch a movie)? If the NFL hands out its hypocritical response to players gambling between now and when this posts, that should be an entertaining topic. Possibly boxing, golf, and errata, but I’m not digging into that shit.

To the comments!