Drivers of gasoline cars should pay fair share

Rep. Ashley Hinson says, 'If you use the infrastructure, you should pay for it” ('House OKs fees for electric vehicle registration,” April 18). As an electric vehicle owner, I am willing to pay for my use of state, county, and city roads. But I would like to ask Hinson if gas-using car owners should be willing to pay for the carbon they are putting in the atmosphere?

I was willing to pay more for an electric vehicle because I don't want to put any more carbon into the atmosphere than is necessary. Climate scientists have proven beyond a doubt that the carbon we are putting into the atmosphere has destabilized it and therefore we get more moisture in the air. This ends up as heavy rainfall that caused the flooding that we in Cedar Rapids experienced in 2008 and 2016 and that western Iowa is experiencing now.

It seems only fair that people who put carbon in the air, which causes flooding, should pay for it as well. So we should be considering a carbon tax, as some of the Democratic candidates have been proposing.

And if you are not happy with the carbon tax, maybe you should consider asking the fossil fuel companies to pay for their destabilization of our atmosphere, since they have known about it since the 1980s and have profited from it handsomely.

Think about that the next time you follow an electric car, and you see no tailpipe.

Charles R. Crawley

Cedar Rapids