I’d like to thank letter writer Ed Reagan (“Make gas affordable again,” Sept. 19) for making my point on eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and transitioning to electric vehicles. He states that he cannot afford EVs at the current prices. I agree that we should make EVs more affordable!
The U.S. currently spends roughly $20 billion per year on fossil fuel subsidies. If, as I suggested in my recent letter, we invest that money in EV and battery manufacturing and in subsidies for people who can’t afford a $60,000 car, we can make them affordable for everyone.
Let’s say we take Ed’s suggestion and drill, baby, drill. Annual gas costs for a truck driving 10,000 miles, getting 20 mpg at the current $3.70 per gallon, are $1,850, so even if gas were free, that’s not even a month’s rent in Portland. And the truck spews almost 5 tons of climate-altering CO2.
Instead of our government subsidizing oil companies’ record profits (ExxonMobil made $18 billion in Q2 – just three months!), let’s give everyone a chance to leave 1890s technology behind us and move toward the future. It’s our only chance at saving the planet.
Daniel Smith
Yarmouth
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.