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I’d like to thank letter writer Ed Reagan (“Make gas affordable again,” Sept. 19) for making my point on eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and transitioning to electric vehicles. He states that he cannot afford EVs at the current prices. I agree that we should make EVs more affordable!

The U.S. currently spends roughly $20 billion per year on fossil fuel subsidies. If, as I suggested in my recent letter, we invest that money in EV and battery manufacturing and in subsidies for people who can’t afford a $60,000 car, we can make them affordable for everyone.

Let’s say we take Ed’s suggestion and drill, baby, drill. Annual gas costs for a truck driving 10,000 miles, getting 20 mpg at the current $3.70 per gallon, are $1,850, so even if gas were free, that’s not even a month’s rent in Portland. And the truck spews almost 5 tons of climate-altering CO2.

Instead of our government subsidizing oil companies’ record profits (ExxonMobil made $18 billion in Q2 – just three months!), let’s give everyone a chance to leave 1890s technology behind us and move toward the future. It’s our only chance at saving the planet.

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