Are Texas Drivers Being Penalized For Not Burning Oil?

If you didn't know, owners of electric vehicles will have to pay registration fees in Texas.

Texas officials are often accused of punishing those who don't toe the line. For example, it sure seems wind farms and other forms of alternative energy are regulated to "keep them in their place" so they don't harm the Texas oil and gas industries (Ironically, Texas is the country's leader in wind power and second in solar power).

I did say "seems" like in the previous paragraph because I'm not going through mountains of regulations to prove a point, and also because I can see some of the reasoning behind charging electric vehicles a registration fee.

Electric vehicle owners will have to pay $400 during their initial purchase and $200 bucks a year for the privilege of using their cars on Texas roads (in addition to the regular registration fees). Here's some background from the Texas Comptrollers page:

"Three-quarters of the state's motor fuels tax revenue is used to build and maintain public roadways".

Drivers of gas vehicles pay for the roads through the gas tax, something electric vehicles would not do.  To make up for this inequity, electric vehicle owners will pay the new fees. It's only fair that E.V. owners pay their fair share, but the stats show they are being asked to pay over twice as much as other drivers. So again, it does look like Texas makes it harder, rather than easier, to own an electric vehicle.