Washington State is funding some $450,000 in its budget to study drivers considered to be "superusers" of gasoline as part of its overall plan to "Move Ahead Washington" and eliminate most gasoline powered vehicles "sold, purchased, or registered" in that state by 2030.
"Transportation is our state's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. There is no way to talk about climate change without talking about transportation," Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee said during the signing event for the legislative package in March. "This package will move us away from the transportation system our grandparents imagined and towards the transportation system our grandchildren dream of."
The recently passed State Senate Bill 5689 calls for a study of gasoline "superusers," defined in a July 2021 report by Coultura, a non-profit organization supporting the transition away from gas to electric vehicles, as about 10% of drivers who consume 32% of the gasoline.
According to the group's report, "superusers" burn more gasoline than the bottom 60% of drivers, consuming more than 1,000 gallons per year based on data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey.
These drivers, the report said, are more likely to drive SUVs and pickup trucks, live in rural areas, spend around 8% of their income on gasoline, and end up driving more than three times the miles of average drivers.
According to the report, they have similar incomes and education levels as the general population, but their average incomes are lower than people who use electric vehicles.
These "superusers" make up around 25 million drivers nationwide, according to the report.
The study approved in the legislation wants to develop ways to convince these drivers to switch to electric vehicles to help the state reach its goal of selling and registering only electric vehicles by 2030, according to the governor's blog on Medium.
"We want to make electric vehicles more accessible and affordable to everyone," Inslee said in a 2018 blog post. "We've worked on this in the past by offering no sales tax on EVs, and our plan is to continue this incentive next year and extend it, because it has been very effective in helping people see that electric vehicles are within their reach."
He said he would like the state to be "as good as Norway" when it comes to using electric vehicles for transportation.
The "Move Ahead Washington" plan, adopted this year, will last 16 years and be a "foundation" for a massive shift to cleaner forms of transportation, officials said.
According to Inslee, a three-term incumbent, the largest share of the legislation's funding goes to climate and clean transportation in the state, including four hybrid ferries, 25 electric transit projects across the state, free fares for passengers 18 and younger on all public transportation, and "tens of thousands" of electric vehicle charging stations.
The measure is projected to create around 2,390 construction and ferry jobs in Washington, according to Inslee.
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