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U.S. NEWS Thursday 12 January 2023

U.S. official warns of risks posed by heavy electric vehicles

By TOM KRISHER we aren’t also creating un-
AP Auto Writer intended consequences:
DETROIT (AP) — The head More death on our roads,”
of the National Transpor- she said. “Safety, especially
tation Safety Board ex- when it comes to new trans-
pressed concern Wednes- portation policies and new
day about the safety risks technologies, cannot be
that heavy electric vehicles overlooked.”Homendy not-
pose if they collide with ed that Ford’s F-150 Light-
lighter vehicles. ning EV pickup is 2,000 to
The official, Jennifer Ho- 3,000 pounds (900 to 1,350
mendy, raised the issue in kilograms) heavier than the
a speech in Washington same model’s combustion
to the Transportation Re- version. The Mustang Mach
search Board. She noted, E electric SUV and the Vol-
by way of example, that vo XC40 EV, she said, are
an electric GMC Hummer roughly 33% heavier than
weighs about 9,000 pounds their gasoline counterparts.
(4,000 kilograms), with a “That has a significant im-
battery pack that alone pact on safety for all road
is 2,900 pounds (1,300 kilo- users,” Homendy added.
grams) roughly the entire The NTSB investigates trans-
weight of a typical Honda portation crashes but has
Civic. no authority to make regu-
“I’m concerned about the Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board speaks during a news conference, lations. For vehicles, such
increased risk of severe in- Oct. 3, 2019, in Windsor Locks, Conn. authority rests largely with
jury and death for all road Associated Press the National Highway Traf-
users from heavier curb batteries. To achieve 300 now, there’s a mismatch in by the Biden administra- fic Safety Administration.
weights and increasing size, or more miles (480 or more weight between EVs and tion’s plans to phase out Even apart from EVs, the
power, and performance kilometers) of range per smaller internal combustion carbon emissions from ve- nation’s roads are crowd-
of vehicles on our roads, charge from an EV, bat- vehicles. EVs also deliver in- hicles to deal with the cli- ed with heavy vehicles,
including electric vehicles,” teries have to weigh thou- stant power to their wheels, mate crisis. But she said she thanks to a decadelong
Homendy said in remarks sands of pounds. making them accelerate still worries about safety risks boom in sales of larger
prepared for the group. Some battery chemistries faster in most cases than resulting from a prolifera- cars, trucks and SUVs that’s
The extra weight that EVs being developed have the most gas-powered cars, tion of EVs on roads ands led to extreme mismatches
typically carry stems from potential to pack more en- trucks and SUVs. Homendy highways. in collisions with smaller ve-
the outsize mass of their ergy into less mass. But for said she was encouraged “We have to be careful that hicles q

Watchdog sees ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for the IRS

By FATIMA HUSSEIN fice assigned to protect duced that backlog to 1 House Republicans, how- Another boon to the agen-
Associated Press taxpayers’ rights under the million individual returns ever, want to rescind the cy is that IRS officials used
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taxpayer Bill of Rights, cited and 1.5 million amended money, saying it would direct hiring authority to
IRS is beginning to see “a “more misery” for taxpayers returns. bankroll an army of 87,000 most recently add 5,000
light at the end of the tun- last year and spoke of the By Dec. 23, the IRS had auditors who will harass customer service represen-
nel” of its customer service challenges still ahead. “I further reduced its unpro- middle-class taxpayers tatives who were trained in
struggles, thanks to tens of am just not sure how much cessed backlog of individu- rather than help them- taxpayer rights and techni-
billions of new money from further we need to travel al returns to about 400,000. claims that are generally cal account management
the Democrats’ climate before we see sunlight,” “Taxpayers and tax profes- alarmist and misleading. issues.q
and health law and the au- she said. sionals experienced more
thority to hire more people, The report outlines how misery in 2022,” the report
according to an indepen- the 2022 tax filing season said.
dent watchdog within the was a continuation of the “The good news is that
agency. yearslong struggle to pro- since the close of the 2022
But that upbeat assessment cess paper and electronic filing season, the IRS has
from the National Taxpayer tax forms, answer taxpayer made considerable prog-
Advocate is tempered by phone calls and distribute ress in reducing the volume
an early move by the new tax refunds in a timely man- of unprocessed returns and
House Republican majority ner. correspondence.”
to rescind nearly $71 bil- The IRS was more success- One reason for the opti-
lion that Congress had pro- ful in chipping away at its mism is the infusion of bil-
vided the IRS, even though mountain of unprocessed lions from the Democratic-
the bill approved Monday returns. The agency began powered legislation signed
is unlikely to advance in the 2022 with a backlog of 4.7 into law this summer. It is
Democratic-run Senate. million individual returns meant to help rebuild an
In the report Wednesday and 3.6 million amended agency that hadn’t seen The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in
to Congress from Erin M. returns. By mid-December additional funding in de- Washington, on March 22, 2013.
Collins, who leads the of- 2022, the tax collector re- cades. Associated Press