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Date:         Fri, 9 Mar 2007 16:40:57 -0800
Reply-To:     Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
Subject:      Re: Anybody burning WVO in Illinois?
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=original

Seems like we had a thread sometime last year on how the state gov'ts are going to replace the fuel taxes that are lost to alternative fuels. Probably not a huge issue for them now but it will be at some point- obviously they have to do it somehow or we won't have any roads upon which to drive our eco-friendly alternatively fueled vehicles.

Bureaucracies quickly evolve from doing their appointed tasks to justifying their existances, and this is an example of that. These bozos pay their mortgages from their jobs enforcing the fuel tax and probably (and correctly) interpret the alternative fuel movement as a direct threat to their livelihoods. This is aside from the basic impulse of the 'find a head to hang on the wall' mentality of enforcement types.

There's another fundamental question here: Since the fuel taxes mainly go to upkeep of the roads, should people making and using alternative fuels get to essentially use for free a service for which everyone else has to pay? Shouldn't they carry their share of the load? When somebody is willfully avoiding carrying their share, should there not be a mechanism by which the rest of us can either enforce payment of that share or denial of the service, or do those of us who are playing fairly assume a heavier load or risk losing the service altogether?

Cya, Robert


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