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North Carolina Bill Adds Fee For Hybrid Owners, Raises Fee For Electric Car Owners

This Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 photo shows a Chevrolet Volt hybrid car at a charging station. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

It may soon cost more to own a hybrid vehicle in North Carolina. 

A Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that mandates an annual registration fee for owners of hybrid cars and trucks. The idea is to offset gas taxes owners are saving when their vehicles are running on battery power.

The News and Observer reports Senate Bill 446 also more than doubles a registration fee that owners of fully electric vehicles already pay in lieu of gas taxes.

The bill is being co-sponsored by Republican Senators Jim Davis and Tom McInnis, who head the transportation and transportation appropriations committees. Davis told committee members the bill is “intended to bring parity so that everybody is contributing their fair share to the gas tax revenue.”

Some committee members have questioned the size of the fees, arguing they might discourage people from buying hybrid and electric vehicles.

North Carolina would become the 9th state to charge hybrid owners a fee, which along with the fee on electric vehicles would be the highest in the nation.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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