Letter: Trebling fees for alternative-fuel ..

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

After watching Sen. Wayne Harper's explanation for SB139 posted on The Tribune's "In Their Own Words" feature, I can only conclude that the senator's logic is greatly flawed, and that this bill should be killed ("In Their Own Words: Fee hike for clean-fuel vehicles," Tribune, Feb. 24).

Alternative fuel vehicles make up a minuscule percentage of vehicles on Utah's roads. A trebling of registration fees will only serve to weaken buyer consideration of purchasing an environmental friendly car or truck, which is exactly opposite of what is necessary to help reduce air pollution.

Also, the resulting income from trebling the fees would contribute an insignificant fraction of the UDOT budget, and would not be missed, given the $13 million payment for a botched bid process that UDOT absorbed without layoffs or canceling projects.

I suggest Harper go back to his cave and rethink his solution to these "tough questions."

Steven M. Thiese

Salt Lake City

Letter: Trebling fees for alternative-fuel vehicles bad idea