Maryland Democrats Want A ‘Clean’ Energy Surcharge On EV’s

A Democrat’s bill in the Maryland State Senate would impose fees on electric vehicles to fund a program that advertises their affordability

Democratic Maryland State Senator Kevin Harris sponsored a bill on February 6 that would establish three separate affordability funds for solar photovoltaic module energy, energy storage, and zero-emission vehicles.

The bill would apply surcharges on the three listed technologies to generate revenue for the proposed affordability funds.

The sales of solar photovoltaic modules would be surcharged at $0.02 per watt of generating capacity. Energy storage systems have a fee of $5 per kilowatt-hour of storage capacity. All zero-emission vehicles have a flat fee of $200 per vehicle.

The bill would create an advisory council for each fund.

The councils’ responsibilities include directing fund revenue for research, communication, marketing, and educational campaigns aligned with the state’s clean energy goals.

The council will also “combat misinformation” related to the three technologies and emphasize their affordability.

The councils can adjust the fee every two years “in accordance with inflation and the needs of the council.” The bill limits fee adjustments to be no more than 0.5% of the technologies’ wholesale value or “an amount sufficient enough to pay for the reasonable costs of the council.”

Council members would receive $100 per day for attending a council meeting for a maximum of 36 days, amounting to $3,600 a year.

The bill would allow members to receive reimbursements for travel expenses through the Standard State Travel regulations provided in the state budget.

The Maryland Energy Administration can use up to five percent of the fees deposited into each fund to reimburse the Administration for providing staff to the councils.

See more here climatechangedispatch

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Comments (8)

  • Avatar

    DouweH

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    Another Cheap, clean energy ripoff.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    very old white guy

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    American democrats are quite insane.

    Reply

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      Aaron

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      Anyone who take a ‘side’ is quite insane

      Reply

      • Avatar

        very old white guy

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        Taking the side that is against evil is never wrong.

        Reply

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          Aaron

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          unfortunately there is no side that is not evil in any government
          the lessor of two evils is still evil
          both ‘sides’ work in tandem with each other to achieve the same goal
          this works cause people have been trained to think they need government and authority pushing them around and telling them what to do, kind of a ‘daddy’ complex

          Reply

  • Avatar

    Dave

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    You’re the anti-American that’s insane with all your anti-Trump DTS comments you need to grow up a little boy.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Aaron

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      Don’t shoot the messenger dave
      seems you are the one with dts

      Reply

    • Avatar

      Seriously

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      🙄…he cannot hear past his affliction. Both sides clearly never have our best interests in mind…keeping us in a constant state of ‘civil war’ is an integral part of political obfuscation…though honestly, the dems constant temper tantrums the years Trump has been in office have exhausted my ability to listen to anything from that quarter (and they never stopped for the 4 years he wasn’t!). But he’s only capable of beating the drum against one. Laying blame on one man political ignorance.

      Reply

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