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[–] 37 points 9 hours ago (8 children)

Two, the red fuel dye used in untaxed/offroad is aggressive and can be detected at extremely low concentrations, if dyed fuel has ever been in a tank it’s detectable for months if not years afterwards (depending on how much it gets refilled).

In other words, it fucks up the ability to tax diesel even long after the crisis is (theoretically/optimistically on Trump's part) over. Considering that they could have just suspended the tax on non-dyed diesel and directed refineries to stop putting the dye in temporarily, but didn't, one wonders if that was the real goal.

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  • [–] 18 points 8 hours ago

    Absolutely fucks up the tax system. It would be a disaster for commercial trucking and I am betting you will not see widespread use of the untaxed fuel even if "allowed" as no operator wants to get on the wrong side of DOT after this is said and done.

    This of course does not apply to light duty trucks and diesel cars where rednecks run red fuel in them almost all the time.

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  • [–] 18 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

    Hanlon's razor has been getting an exceptional workout these days. It could just be that Trump is monumentally stupid and didn't think about this at all.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

    Trump is monumentally stupid, but that doesn't mean his Wormtongue-esque advisors are. Trump probably didn't know red-dyed diesel existed before this; he definitely didn't come up with the idea to let truckers use it himself.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

    During his first term I would consider this to be a more likely explanation, but second-term Trump has been doing a pretty good job of purging anyone with actual competence. He wasn't happy with how they kept telling him what to do last time around.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 hours ago (1 child)

    We don't tax fuel enough to maintain the roads as is. The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away. It also means we might have to shift to registration fees as the primary mechanism to fund roads, which we were already considering for electric cars but then we're going down this road you might have to make it Universal to all vehicles, preferably increasing with vehicle weights

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  • [–] 6 points 7 hours ago

    The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away.

    Maybe, but more likely they're just going to use more money from the general fund like they already do. Only 26% of the road infrastructure budget came from gas taxes to begin with. So yes, the funding would drop if they don't make up the shortfall with other funds, but not as much as you think.

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