Abstract
Along with performance standards, fees on fuel and inefficient new vehicles are among the best policies for reducing emissions from on-road vehicles, which make up 71 percent of emissions from the global transportation sector.1 Both fuel and vehicle fees have been widely used in the past, generating revenues for infrastructure projects such as road construction and public transit. With careful government investment of these revenues—targeting improvements such as urban mobility measures, efficiency, and research and development (R&D) for new clean energy and efficiency technologies—it is possible to magnify their impact and accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon future. Vehicle and fuel fees and feebates can provide about 1 percent of the reductions required in a two-degree warming scenario (Figure 7-1).
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Notes
- 1.
Francisco Posada Sanchez and Laura Segafredo, “Policies That Work: How Vehicle Standards and Fuel Fees Can Cut CO2 Emissions and Boost the Economy” (ClimateWorks Foundation, 2012), 5, https://cleanenergysolutions.org/sites/default/files/documents/CW-ICCT-PTW-CESC-December-13-2012_Final.pdf.
- 2.
Anastasia Kharina, Daniel Rutherford, and Mazyar Zeinali, “Cost Assessment of Near-and Mid-Term Technologies to Improve New Aircraft Fuel Efficiency” (International Council on Clean Transportation, 2016), http://www.theicct.org/publications/cost-assessment-near-and-mid-term-technologies-improve-new-aircraft-fuel-efficiency.
- 3.
“State Motor Fuel Taxes: Notes Summary” (American Petroleum Institute, 2016), http://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Statistics/State-Motor-Fuel-Excise-Tax-Update-July-2016.pdf.
- 4.
“2017 and Later Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards,” 40 CFR Parts 85, 86, and 600 § (2012), 62716, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-10-15/pdf/2012-21972.pdf.
- 5.
“Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles,” 49 CFR Parts 523, 534, and 535 § (2011), 57329, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-15/pdf/2011-20740.pdf.
- 6.
“In China, the License Plates Can Cost More Than the Car” Bloomberg (2013), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-04-25/in-china-the-license-plates-can-cost-more-than-the-car.
- 7.
Leo Mirani, “Norway’s Electric-Car Incentives Were So Good They Had to Be Stopped,” Quartz (blog), accessed December 14, 2017, https://qz.com/400277/norway-electric-car-incentives-were-so-good-they-had-to-be-stopped/
- 8.
Peter Levring, “Soon, Cars in Denmark Will Only Be Taxed at 100%” Bloomberg (2017), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-29/soon-cars-in-denmark-will-only-be-taxed-at-100.
- 9.
Peter Levring, “Denmark Is Killing Tesla (and Other Electric Cars)” Bloomberg (2017), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-02/denmark-is-killing-tesla-and-other-electric-cars.
- 10.
Meghan R. Busse, Christopher R. Knittel, and Florian Zettelmeyer, “Are Consumers Myopic? Evidence from New and Used Car Purchases,” American Economic Review 103, no. 1 (2013): 220–56, https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.103.L220.
- 11.
Additional tools can help policymakers design the right feebate structure for their countries. For example, see “Feebate Simulation Tool” (International Council on Clean Transportation), accessed December 14, 2017, http://www.theicct.org/feebate-simulation-tool.
- 12.
David Greene, “What Is Greener Than a VMT Tax? The Case for an Indexed Energy User Fee to Finance US Surface Transportation,” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 16 (August 1, 2011): 451–58, https://doi.Org/10.1016/j.trd.2011.05.003.
- 13.
Vehicle performance standards that are set by vehicle weight rather than footprint risk incentivizing manufacturers to make heavier vehicles so they can be categorized in a heavier vehicle class with lower efficiency requirements.
- 14.
Kevin McCormally, “A Brief History of the Federal Gasoline Tax” (Kiplinger, 2014), http://www.kiplinger.com/article/spending/T063-C000-S001-a-brief-history-of-the-federal-gasoline-tax.html.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Brad Plumer, “A Short History of America’s Gas Tax Woes,” Washington Post (2011), https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/a-short-history-of-americas-gas-tax-woes/2011/08/24/gIQAjyfXdJ_blog.html.
- 17.
Bennett Cohen and Cory Lowe, “Feebates: A Key to Breaking U.S. Oil Addiction” (Rocky Mountain Institute, 2010), https://www.rmi.org/news/feebates-key-breaking-u-s-oil-addiction/.
- 18.
>“Bonus-Malus: Definitions and Scales for 2016” (French Ministry of Environment, Energy, and the Sea, 2016), http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Bonus-Malus-definitions-et-baremes.
- 19.
John German and Dan Meszler, “Best Practices for Feebate Program Design and Implementation” (International Council on Clean Transportation, 2010), http://www.theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/ICCT_feebates_may2010.pdf.
- 20.
“Bonus-Malus Écologique” (Wikipédia, 2017), https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bonus-malus_%C3%A9cologique&oldid=143338453.
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© 2018 Hal Harvey, Robbie Orvis, and Jeffrey Rissman
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Harvey, H., Orvis, R., Rissman, J. (2018). Vehicle and Fuel Fees and Feebates. In: Designing Climate Solutions. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-957-9_8
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