When the first Tesla's came out I remember seeing all those pictures of snarky vanity plates line 4GET OIL, BYE ICE and LOL GAS. Today I can really relate when I read the latest news about the increasing gas price.
We haven't had the fully electric car for that long, but last time I had to buy gas it was around 1,60€ per liter. Now it's closing the 2 euro mark (the high octane kind is already past that).
But the news... Finnish government is planning to meet the strict emission targets (partly) by starting to utilize emission credits. This would mean the gas distributors need to start paying for carbon credits offsetting all the emissions the gas they sell. Of course in the end the payers will be the car owners still having a car with internal combustion engine. The estimated cost increase is between 55 and 70 cents per liter.
Alternative solution would have been increasing the environmental tax on the gas itself. But that faced opposition from some Finnish parties that were too worried to exert new taxes that would more directly affect the people (their voters). Even if the environment credit arrangement will require some additional expenses from the public funds as all that payment management infrastructure and agenture needs to be established instead of using the already existing solution that could have been used for the tax based solution.
Regardless the solution, increasing the gas price will unfortunately affect most those who can't afford a more sustainable alternatives whereas the rich don't care spending a bit more for their gas guzzling behemoths.