Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet
Statement on the Build America 250 Act:
In Defense of Clean Transportation

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s five-year Surface Transportation Reauthorization, H.R. 8870 (the so-called “Build America 250 Act”) is a complicated budget bill containing many moving parts. In its current configuration, it contains a whole host of dangerous and damaging provisions. The Act should be wholly rejected as it stands on the House floor and drastically altered in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Problems in its current form:

• In its current form, H.R. 8870 zeroes out dollars for the successful National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program of state block grants for EV charging infrastructure. 
• It totally defunds grid-friendly electric school buses. 
• Despite EV owners already paying registration road fees in 37 states, it proposes a new punitive tax on EV owners at more than double what the average ICE driver pays.

Can kicked down a crumbling gravel road

H.R. 8870 does nothing to address the structural imbalance with the Highway Trust Fund, which has been unsustainable for decades. The 18.4 cent-per-gallon gas tax has never been indexed for inflation since its introduction in 1993 (House members made sure to index their new EV Tax). Spending has exceeded gas tax revenues every year this century. Since 2008, the Fund has required repeated general fund bailouts totaling $275 billion. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that nearly $330 billion will be needed over the next decade just to keep the highway trust fund solvent at current spending levels. That’s primarily due to rising road repair costs, greater fuel efficiency and declining user revenues. The new EV tax would fill less than 9% of the funding gap.

Admit the major problem. Fix the real problem.

Steve Davis of Transportation for America remarks that the Highway Trust Fund is not on life support—it has been dead since 2008. Congress needs to pursue long-term fiscal stability, and it should be accomplished in a way that is transparent, fair and consistent, treating all drivers and vehicles equally regardless of drivetrain technology, The leadership of the House Transportation Committee has singled out electric vehicles and stubbornly rejected consideration of vehicle weight and vehicle miles traveled, by far the two biggest stressors on road maintenance. 

Heavy trucks on roads

Dave Cooke of the Union of Concerned Scientists points out that medium and heavy duty trucks cause the lion’s share of road damage—and their industry wants taxpayers to keep paying for it. According to the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), the damage to roads is proportional to axle weight raised to the 4th power. This means that a 5-axle tractor trailer at 80,000 pound maximum weight does roughly 10,000 times more damage per mile traveled than a 4,000-pound passenger vehicle. 

Transportation equity

Lower and middle class households should be sheltered from mean-spirited cost burdens in general and with transportation in particular. Acterra will continue this fight for EVs for all locally, regionally and statewide as well as nationally through active participation in the national Coalition Helping America Rebuild & Go Electric (CHARGE).

Climate change as a driver

“The next reauthorization bill must and will take climate change seriously,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. As of now, H.R. 8870 fails this goal.

Take action

H.R. 8870 will come out of committee and be sent to the House Floor for a vote this week. Now is the time to give your Congressperson an earful. We’ve made a handy button for action. Here’s the link: 

https://tinyurl.com/NOonHR8870

Acterra’s HR 8870 ActionButton automatically finds your Congressperson.