If I'm going to pay a retarded $400 extra fee to register my electric vehicle, I'm at least complaining about it over email to state reps:
Rhode Island takes no less than three bites at me for choosing electricity over gasoline. On my electric bill, roughly 10% of what I pay - the gross earnings tax, the RES and REG charges, energy efficiency, LIHEAP, the transition charge - exists only because the state legislated itself into the rate structure (somewhere in the ballpark of $30-50/month, so: $360-$600/year). Then my income, sales, and property taxes already fund roads through the general fund, on top of the gas tax that's supposedly dedicated to them - road funding has been cross-subsidized from general revenue for over a decade. Then the state adds a $200/year EV registration fee to recoup the gas tax I'm not paying, which is a fee that runs ~33% higher than what the average gas car contributes in fuel tax, layered on top of a registration fee I was already paying. Even conservatively, between the EV registration fee and the state-imposed surcharges on the electricity I use to charge, I'm paying north of $300/year. More than double what the average gas car contributes in fuel tax
Where it gets really mind-bending: the same state offers DRIVE EV rebates and has codified EV adoption targets under the Act on Climate. So the state is charging me to offset the behavior they're also paying me to adopt - on each end of the energy-transport stack - while collecting from me through at least four separate channels for a road system that, if it were honestly priced, could be funded by tolls (if the goal is truly "pay by actual use", of which I'm very much in support!)
vinney...axkl
npub19m…8axkl
2026-04-16 15:24:32 UTC
Author Public Key
npub19ma2w9dmk3kat0nt0k5dwuqzvmg3va9ezwup0zkakhpwv0vcwvcsg8axklPublished at
2026-04-16 15:24:32 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "If I'm going to pay a retarded $400 extra fee to register my electric vehicle, I'm at least complaining about it over email to state reps:\n\nRhode Island takes no less than three bites at me for choosing electricity over gasoline. On my electric bill, roughly 10% of what I pay - the gross earnings tax, the RES and REG charges, energy efficiency, LIHEAP, the transition charge - exists only because the state legislated itself into the rate structure (somewhere in the ballpark of $30-50/month, so: $360-$600/year). Then my income, sales, and property taxes already fund roads through the general fund, on top of the gas tax that's supposedly dedicated to them - road funding has been cross-subsidized from general revenue for over a decade. Then the state adds a $200/year EV registration fee to recoup the gas tax I'm not paying, which is a fee that runs ~33% higher than what the average gas car contributes in fuel tax, layered on top of a registration fee I was already paying. Even conservatively, between the EV registration fee and the state-imposed surcharges on the electricity I use to charge, I'm paying north of $300/year. More than double what the average gas car contributes in fuel tax\n\nWhere it gets really mind-bending: the same state offers DRIVE EV rebates and has codified EV adoption targets under the Act on Climate. So the state is charging me to offset the behavior they're also paying me to adopt - on each end of the energy-transport stack - while collecting from me through at least four separate channels for a road system that, if it were honestly priced, could be funded by tolls (if the goal is truly \"pay by actual use\", of which I'm very much in support!)",
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