Does NC gas tax relief extend to my hybrid EV? | Opinion
Just received registration renewal for my car which has a $107.50 surcharge for being a hybrid.
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Since the gas tax is suspended, will NC DMV be sending out rebate checks to people paying the EV/hybrid surcharge?
Anthony Quartararo, Raleigh
In 2018, Congress encouraged American farmers and entrepreneurs to invest in hemp production. Small businesses responded, creating products, jobs, and an expanding market.
Now, legislation threatens much of the hemp-derived beverage and edible industry that grew from those investments. There’s a legitimate problem here. I’ve personally sampled hemp-derived products ranging from almost ineffective to astonishingly powerful. Some clearly need much better regulation. But why should the solution be to destroy businesses that invested in an industry Congress helped establish?
Require accurate labeling, independent potency testing, reasonable dosage limits, age restrictions, and meaningful enforcement. Protect consumers while giving responsible producers an opportunity to comply.
Industrial hemp used for fiber and other purposes remains legal, but those businesses producing consumable cannabinoid products face a very different future.
Jarles Alberg, Raleigh
Wake County’s proposed 2027 Schedule of Values recognizes parcel-specific factors including size, location, heavy traffic, buffers, shape and topography.
Wake already publishes detailed numerical standards for some residential valuation, including base square-foot rates and construction-grade adjustments. But some parcel-specific land and location factors are identified without equally specific published criteria showing when an adjustment applies or how its value effect is calculated.
Wake need not copy another jurisdiction’s percentages. It should develop its own market-based metrics so these factors can be measured and applied consistently.
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This issue extends beyond townhouses. Property owners should be able to have confidence that materially similar properties are treated similarly and that meaningful property differences are recognized when the market recognizes them.
James Nelson, Raleigh
Regarding the Sept 23 report on ”Chemours Still Leaking Forever Chemicals Into the Cape Fear River”:
For too long, corporations seem to make their decisions solely on short-term profitability instead of considering the future impacts of what it is they manufacture, what materials or chemicals are used and disposed of during the manufacturing process, and how the end product will be disposed. They wait to get “caught” and then deal with the repercussions. This story is a case in point – with harmful chemicals that last FOREVER in our environment.
Instead of simply fining Chemours, perhaps Chemours should be required to completely shut down all operations until they can prove that they have met or exceeded the safety requirements. Additionally, they should be required to provide their improvements with transparency to the community. Unfortunately, it seems that the only way to a manufacturing executive’s decision tree is through a bottom line rather than through their conscience.
Vicki Welch, Cary
When I opened the Sunday paper on Oct. 4, I never anticipated the need to thank you for one of the most important front pages I’ve encountered in the decades I’ve been a subscriber!
A story describing the plight of many migrant farm workers and ALL farmers as a result of an extended drought! The difficulties of black parents owing to the inequities of the Triangle’s (and other) public school system! The legal and emotional gap in parental rights of same-sex marriages and the parent not considered a legal parent!
On one page you addressed almost every political topic gnawing at the heart of liberal advocacy! Thank you!
Beverly Fader, Goldsboro
This story was originally published October 11, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline “Does NC gas tax relief extend to my hybrid EV? | Opinion.”
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