In 2014, I decided to buy a hybrid car instead of a traditional gasoline-only car. Although it was more expensive than a regular gasoline-only car (and I was taking the risk of having to buy very expensive batteries whenever the original ones would die off), I figured the car would put less carbon in the atmosphere and would be my way of contributing to saving the environment.
In fact, it turned out that my new hybrid car makes more than twice as many miles-per-gallon than my old car (which was pretty good on gas mileage when it was bought 10 years earlier).
I read in the newspaper (Feb. 14) that Gov. LePage wants to impose a fee of $150 on those who own hybrid cars because they use less gasoline than regular cars and, subsequently, provide less money for highway maintenance. Instead of my being rewarded for my willingness to pay more for a car in order to save the environment, I feel that now I am being punished for it.
Such a fee would discourage people from buying electric and hybrid cars and, consequently, drivers will keep on polluting the environment.
Electric and hybrid cars are, or at least should be, the way of the future. Wouldn’t it be smarter to find another way to take care of road maintenance than to depend on taxing gasoline use that pollutes the atmosphere?
Donald LaBranche, Lewiston
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