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Clean air mandates exacerbating dearth in gas tax revenues used for roads, bridges, infrastructure: Expert

Clean air mandates exacerbating dearth in gas tax revenues used for roads, bridges, infrastructure: Expert

As gas tax revenues plunge, several states are scrambling to fund basic infrastructure repairs—a crisis made worse by clean air mandates pushing automakers toward electric vehicles, according to an energy policy expert. States primarily use gas tax revenues to fund the maintenance of infrastructure, like bridges and roads. In Oregon, a state with aggressive climate goals, the Department of Transportation has anticipated that it will face an estimated $350 million budget shortfall due in part to declining gas tax revenues. California, which requires auto manufacturers to sell a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles, is looking at a potential loss of $5 billion – or 64% – over the next decade, according to analysts.  Jason Isaac is the founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, a trade organization representing mainly oil and gas companies. He told Fox News Digital that states are losing about $2,506 in gas tax revenue per every EV sold. Isaac said that, in his view, strict EV mandates are exacerbating the dearth in gas tax revenues. DOGE LAWMAKERS LOOK TO DEFUND BIDEN’S ANEMIC-PACED $3B EV POSTAL TRUCK ‘BOONDOGGLE’ “The regulations and requirements from the federal government for automobile manufacturers to make and sell electric vehicles is having a profound impact on revenue collection for states and the federal government to fund our highway infrastructure,” Isaac said.  In particular, he pointed to clean air fuel economy requirements. “Automobile manufacturers are all losing billions of dollars making EVs. The only company that’s making money selling EVs is Tesla, and they’re making money because they’re selling fuel emissions credits to other automobile manufacturers,” Isaac said. “Tesla would just break even, maybe a little bit of profit, if it wasn’t for the selling of the credits to Ford and GM, Stellantis, and other automobile manufacturers that are forced to buy fuel economy credits because of requirements from the federal government.” As a result, Isaac said, gas-powered car manufacturers are compelled to make more electric vehicles in an effort to keep up with government mandates. “It’s really destroying the market,” he said.  EPA ADMINISTRATOR ROLLS BACK 31 BIDEN-ERA REGULATIONS Meanwhile, Isaac posited, fuel economy mandates and the ongoing credit-buy-back system have generated a “multi-billion dollar market out of nothing that’s not improving fuel economy.”  “There’s bipartisan support to get rid of these credits,” he said, adding that the move would help auto manufacturers relying on the system “to make a comeback and truly improve fuel economy and vehicles, because they won’t be wasting billions of dollars from vehicles that people just overwhelmingly don’t want. The rates of repurchases are decreasing significantly.” According to McKinsey & Co.’s 2024 Mobility Consumer Pulse, 46% of EV owners in the U.S. said they were “very” likely to switch back to owning a gas-powered vehicle in their next purchase, due mainly to a lack of charging infrastructure and range limitations.  STUDY FOUND US GAS EXPORTS DID NOT IMPACT CLIMATE CHANGE, SO BIDEN ADMIN BURIED IT, OFFICIALS SAY The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said this month that it was beginning the process of rolling back automotive pollution and fuel economy standards set under former President Joe Biden, part of a broader initiative to peel back green energy initiatives. In January, President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, also issued an order directing regulators to review the current Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards.   CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Different solutions are being considered by states to supplement their lost gas tax revenues, including mile-based road usage charges, taxes on EV charging stations, and increased registration fees for EVs. A debate has also emerged over raising the federal gas tax—which has not increased since 1993—as a potential solution. Isaac said that in addition to amending federal fuel economy standards, he noted that raising the registration fee for EVs is a good solution. He said putting a tax on electric-vehicle charging stations would likely not generate enough funds to make up for the lost revenue. Isaac also posited that he was not very keen on the implementation of a vehicle-mile travel tax. He suggested that it could serve as a “regressive” tax on lower-income people who are struggling with the cost of housing, because they will have to move out of urban areas to rural or suburban areas, increasing the amount of miles they need to travel for work and other activities. Isaac is not a proponent of raising the federal gas tax either. “We don’t need to raise the tax, we just need to spend our dollars more efficiently,” Isaac said. “I think DOGE is going to help with that efficiency, so that dollars are truly making it to the maintenance of our nation’s infrastructure.”

DeSantis pushes Florida surgeon general for CDC director role

DeSantis pushes Florida surgeon general for CDC director role

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants President Donald Trump to tap Sunshine State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director. DeSantis contends that the public health official could do more for the state at the CDC than he can now. “Overhauling the CDC would be beneficial to FL. Joe could do more for FL as CDC Director than as FL Surgeon General,” the governor said in a post on X.  DESANTIS PROPOSES SOLUTION AS TRUMP’S AGENDA IS STYMIED BY JUDGES DeSantis agreed with someone who suggested that Ladapo “as CDC Director is the right pick, the transformative pick, the history making pick, the pick that would save the Republic.” “Dr. Joe Ladapo is all of those things and has the courage and determination to do what’s right when it’s not easy,” the governor declared in a tweet. “Lapado as CDC Director means that MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] is not just an empty slogan.” President Donald Trump announced that he was tapping former U.S. Rep. Dr. Dave Weldon for the role last year, but earlier this month, the White House pulled his nomination, so the president now needs to tap someone else for the post. “Twelve hours before my scheduled confirmation hearing in The Senate, I received a phone call from an assistant at the White House informing me that my nomination to be Director of CDC was being withdrawn because there were not enough votes to get me confirmed,” Weldon said in a statement that has been posted online by the New York Times and Washington Post.  DESANTIS SAYS FLORIDA RETURNED $878M IN TAXPAYER FUNDS TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AFTER MEETING WITH MUSK, DOGE “I then spoke to HHS Secretary Bobbie Kennedy who was very upset. He was told the same thing and that he had been looking forward to working with me at CDC. He said I was the perfect person for the job.” Last year, DeSantis floated Ladapo for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services before Trump announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for that role. DESANTIS FLOATS FLORIDA SURGEON GENERAL DR. JOSEPH LADAPO AS CANDIDATE FOR TRUMP’S HHS SECRETARY CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Retweet if you’d like to see this man — Dr. Joseph Ladapo — serve as the Secretary of HHS in the new Trump administration,” DeSantis tweeted in November, sharing Ladapo’s photo in the post.

Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments in high-profile deportation suit involving Venezuelan nationals

Court of Appeals to hear oral arguments in high-profile deportation suit involving Venezuelan nationals

The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments Monday on whether a lower court can properly address the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Venezuelan nationals via a 1798 wartime law.  The administration asked for a stay pending appeal shortly after an initial March 15 order was issued, calling it a “massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens who pose threats to the American people.” The Trump administration had attempted to invoke a 1798 wartime authority to deport Venezuelan nationals, including alleged members of the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), for a period of 14 days.  COURT ORDER HALTING DEPORTATION FLIGHTS ‘UNCONSTITUTIONALLY IMPEDES’ EXECUTIVE BRANCH, TRUMP ALLIES ARGUE Last week, Obama-appointed, D.C.-based Judge James Boasberg issued an order to immediately halt any planned deportations of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador. A plane carrying hundreds of U.S. migrants, including Venezuelan nationals removed under the law, arrived in El Salvador hours later despite the order. Boasberg held a Monday evening fact-finding hearing, where he ordered the Trump administration to submit more information on the flights, including information on how planes departed the U.S. that were carrying any people who were deported “solely on the basis” of that proclamation, how many individuals were on each plane, where the planes landed and what time each plane took off from the U.S., and from where. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TELLS FEDERAL JUDGE IT MIGHT INVOKE STATE SECRETS ACT ON HIGH-PROFILE DEPORTATION CASE Boasberg imposed a Tuesday noon deadline to submit the information and also ordered the parties to appear in court again on Friday.  In a reply brief submitted to the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday, the government said “the district court is continuing to attempt to pry sensitive information from the Government. All of the district court’s orders should be stayed, and the Executive Branch’s standing as a coequal branch of Government should be respected.” The Trump administration called the additional requests “intrusive inquiries that could hamper negotiations in the future.” The government repeatedly failed to comply with the order to submit additional information, citing national security issues. Boasberg then said the government could submit the information under seal by Thursday.  JUDICIAL HALT OF DEPORTATION FLIGHTS PUTS US FOREIGN POLICY AT RISK, CAREER STATE DEPT OFFICIAL CLAIMS In a Thursday evening order, Boasberg slammed the administration after it missed his deadline, saying it “again evaded its obligations” to submit the requested information.  Boasberg wrote in his order that the government had, instead, sent a six-paragraph declaration from a regional ICE office director in Harlingen, Texas, which notified the court that Cabinet secretaries are “actively considering whether to invoke the state secrets [act] privileges over the other facts requested by the Court’s order.” Boasberg called the submission “woefully insufficient.” Judges Karen Henderson, Patricia Millett and Justin Walker will preside over the Monday oral arguments. Two of the three judges were nominated by Republican presidents, with Henderson appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and Walker by Trump in 2020.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Millett was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013. Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and David Spunt contributed to this report.