Watch Now: Oklahoma lawmakers want to plug electric vehicles into road revenue stream

Tulsa World

Randy Krehbiel

February 9, 2021

The way policymakers look at it, electric vehicles are getting a free ride on the state’s highways because they don’t pay fuel taxes. And with sales of those vehicles growing, that’s becoming a problem.

“This year, the revenue would be pretty minimal,” said state Rep. Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow. “It’s the long-term future we’re looking at. Ten years from now, it will be impossible to do this.”

“This” is legislation that would impose a tax on electric vehicles proponents say would roughly equal the fuel taxes paid by owners of internal combustion engines.

Electric vehicles do pay turnpike tolls, which pay for those highways and bridges, but they don’t pay the state or federal fuel taxes that are the primary source of maintenance and construction funds for the rest of the road transportation system.

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