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After record highs in June, gas prices are . A half-dozen states tried to ease the pain at the pump by temporarily suspending their regular tax on gasoline. Most of those gas tax “holidays” have already come and gone, nfl jersey but a few are still in effect. (New York’s runs until Dec. 31.)Critics argued that any savings would be eaten up by oil producers and gas stations. But a  found that in Maryland, Georgia and Connecticut — which all instituted early gas tax holidays — consumers reaped the benefits. 

The researchers prefaced their findings by saying “price reductions were often not sustained during the entire holiday.”

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Americans support suspending their state fuel tax, according to a Politico/Morning Consult  from March.

Which states have put the brakes on gas taxes? Which gas tax holidays are still in effect? And how much are they really saving drivers? Here’s everything you need to know.

Which states suspended their gas tax?

Proposals to limit fuel taxes, which fund interstate highway repair and mass transit projects, have been introduced in more than 20 states. So far only six have pulled the lever. Several of these efforts have come and gone, allowing economists to determine whether they produced real savings for consumers.

Maryland

Maryland became the first state to pause its gas tax, suspending the 36-cent-a-gallon tax on retail gasoline and the 37-cent tax on diesel from March 18 to April 18.  

“This is, of course, not a cure-all, and market instability will continue to lead to fluctuations in prices,” said .

 found that the March gas tax break had mixed results. Though prices declined 5% while the tax was suspended, after it expired, “gasoline prices in Maryland became higher than what they would have been if the gasoline tax holiday never occurred.”

But the net result , researchers said, with 72% of tax savings being passed onto consumers.

“The suspension of the state gasoline tax in Maryland reduced prices faced by consumers by 26 cents [a gallon] on average over the course of the gasoline tax holiday,” the study said.

On July 1, Maryland’s gas tax, which is tied to inflation, automatically rose 7 cents, to 43 cents per gallon. Comptroller Peter Franchot has called for a special session of the General Assembly to pass another three-month gas tax holiday. If it did, a two-car household fueling up on 15 gallons a week could see a savings of more than $150 over the 90-day pause, Baltimore station FOX 45 .

Georgia

Georgia’s General Assembly voted unanimously to pause state fuel taxes until May 31, shaving 29.1 cents a gallon off the price of gasoline and 32.6 cents per gallon off diesel. Gov. Brian Kemp, who said lost revenue is being covered by state surplus funds, later extended the gas tax holiday until July 14.

According to the Wharton report, savings in Georgia gradually grew from 7 cents a gallon on March 24 to around 30 cents a gallon on May 16. In all, the researchers found that 58%-65% of tax savings were passed on to consumers

Georgia last suspended its fuel tax in May 2021, when the .  

Connecticut

 on March 24 temporarily lifting the state’s 25-cent-per-gallon excise tax on gasoline from April 1 to June 30 — a step that he said would save drivers an estimated $90 million.

According to the Penn study, Gasoline prices declined immediately after the pause went into effect. Savings grew from 11 cents on April 2 to 23 cents on April 15, but by May 16 they’d shrunk to about 14 cents.

In all, consumers reaped 71%-87% of the savings from the tax pause, the researchers found. Lamont has since extended the gas tax holiday through November 30, 2022.

New York 

In April, lawmakers in Albany approved a budget that suspends the state’s 8-cent fuel tax and an 8-cent sales tax between June 1 and Dec. 31. The move is projected to save New York drivers about 16 cents a gallon.

“By suspending certain fuel taxes for the next seven months, New York is providing some $609 million in direct relief to New Yorkers, a critical lifeline for those who need it most,” Gov. Kathy Hochul .

Florida

In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a budget that includes a  that will lower the price of gas by 25.3 cents a gallon.

California 

After efforts to suspend the 51-cent gas tax failed, California Gov. Gavin Newsom compromised with lawmakers in June and agreed to suspend a portion of the diesel sales tax, lowering it by about 23 cents per gallon at a cost of $439 million. 

What are other states doing about gas taxes?

State  — which can include an excise tax, sales taxes, oil inspection fees, county and local taxes and other charges — vary greatly. Pennsylvania has the highest, nearly 59 cents a gallon, and Alaska the lowest, a little over 33 cents a gallon. The weighted national average is about 57 cents a gallon.

In Michigan, a Republican measure to suspend the state’s gas tax failed to garner sufficient support. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she backs  the sales tax on gasoline instead. Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich wants to cut the 6% fee for one year.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has  at 39.2 cents per gallon through the rest of 2022. In October, Missouri increased its gas tax by 2.5 cents, to 17 cents, then upped it another 2.5 cents on July 1, to 19.5 cents. But the increase is fully refundable for most motorists if they keep their gas receipts and submit them to the Missouri Department of Revenue website. (Drivers can start  receipts from October 2021 through June 2022.)

In a more moderate move, a measure introduced in Ohio  by about 10 cents a gallon. The bill, Senate Bill 277, has not advanced to a floor vote since it was sent to the Transportation Committee in February.

Some cities are coming up with their own solutions: Since April, Chicago has issued tens of thousands of $150 gas cards and $50 public-transport vouchers to eligible residents via lottery.  

How much would suspending the federal gas tax save drivers?

Introduced by Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan and Mark Kelly, the  would pause the federal fuel tax — which is about 18.3 cents a gallon for retail gasoline and 24.3 cents a gallon for diesel — until  Jan. 1, 2023.

President Biden has endorsed pausing the tax for three months, but there has been no movement in Congress so far.

A nationwide gas tax holiday would save drivers about $2.75 every time they fill up a typical 15-gallon tank. if you filled up once a week, that adds up to a little more than $44 in savings between September and January.

Does Congress support a federal gas tax holiday?

While Biden has backed the idea, legislation has languished in the Senate since February. Though it was introduced by a Democrat, the party’s leadership has been ambivalent.

“I’ve not been a proponent,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters in June, . “I just don’t know that it gives much relief.

With , the likelihood of a federal gas tax holiday seems even more remote.

What are the arguments against a gas tax holiday?

Critics, including other Democrats in Congress, say even temporarily lifting the tax would hurt the infrastructure projects that it funds.

A gas tax holiday would cost billions, at a time when  has seemingly run out of steam. 

“While there is undoubtedly a need to provide American consumers relief from spiking costs, there is no guarantee a gas tax suspension would reduce prices at the pump or stem the broader inflation affecting the global economy,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon,  in mid-June. Blumenauer added the holiday “may only increase oil companies’ bottom lines.”

Some economists also argue a gas tax holiday encourages Americans to drive more rather than address oil supply shortages, and it could also stall the transition to climate-friendly energy sources.

“It’s a way for politicians to pretend they are making the situation better, when in fact they are making it worse,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, wrote in a February op-ed .

MacGuineas predicts oil producers and gas stations would swallow any savings by raising the pretax price of gasoline. Analysis  indicates that, over the past decade, less than 20% of state gas tax cuts have been passed down to consumers.  

The biggest game in football is this weekend and people from around the world will tune in to check out , , and (hopefully) a great game. One thing that won’t be on display this Sunday is any sizeable solar installation. While it might be silly to expect such a thing, stadiums used by National Football League teams are actually pretty natural fits for generating solar power.

Besides their sizable roofs, they often come with large parking lots, covered walkways, sky bridges, attached convention centers and plenty of other spaces for solar panels. In fact, plenty of nfl shirts stadiums already host large solar arrays.

Fourteen of the NFL’s 30 stadiums have solar installations. While it’s a bit harder to design head-to-head matchups for solar installations than it is for this year’s 14 playoff teams, we can still crown a champion of the very first Solar Bowl. 

Stadiums are a good fit for solar

One requirement for solar power is open space with a relatively unobstructed view of the sun. Think of the solar panels increasingly going up on the roofs of houses. Rooftops are a great fit for solar because they’re open and above a lot of shade-casting obstructions. It’s also why old as solar farms.

Stadiums are often taller than surrounding structures and accompanied by acres of parking lots. That’s a lot of prime, unshaded real estate.

From the other direction, hosting a major event like a NFL game takes a lot of energy. A lot. Back in 2013, AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, demanded up to 10 megawatts of electricity to power lights, concessions, air conditioning and other stadium functions. It was , a country of over 4 million people at the time, couldn’t have provided enough energy to run the stadium that holds 80,000. (That number is peak demand. The stadium uses far less when it’s sitting empty. Regardless, it’s a lot of electricity.)

Which stadiums have the most solar?

While about half of NFL stadiums have turned to solar to offset their hefty energy use, four stand out above the rest.

The top four stadiums for solar

• Fourth place in this year’s Solar Bowl goes to Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, which has a 525 kilowatt installation of 2,556 panels, soaking up that famous New England sun. The panels are largely installed on the adjacent Patriots Place shopping center, but since it’s next door and obviously tied to the stadium, we’ll count it here. The panels produce about 625,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which will cover about 30% of the energy used by Patriots Place.
• Lumen Field in Seattle is home to the Seahawks and [PDF] of the connected convention center’s roof. They provide 830,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, enough to power 95 Seattle homes for a year. Despite its reputation for cloudy weather, Seattle’s stadium takes third place in the Solar Bowl.
• Solar Bowl runner up is Mercedes-Benz Stadium of the Atlanta Falcons. The 2017 stadium has over 4,000 panels with a generating capacity of 1.3 megawatts. Per year, it generates a whopping 1.6 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, .
• Solar Bowl champion, without a doubt, is Financial Field, home to the Philadelphia Eagles. Eleven thousand solar panels on the stadium and over parking lots have a capacity of 3 megawatts. It covers about 33% of the stadium’s energy use annually and more than enough energy to power the home games for a year, a team spokesperson said in an email. The vast majority of the panels cover a parking lot, where they provide solar power, but also shelter from rain and snow. Lincoln Financial Field stands head and shoulders above the rest.

The rest

Levi’s Stadium (San Francisco 49ers) lands outside the top four with a 375 kw installation of 1,180 panels that, along with other sustainability features, made it . M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore Ravens) installed . The installation’s capacity wasn’t publicly available, but the panels were two years newer than those in San Francisco, so it may generate a bit more electricity than Levi’s Stadium.

MetLife Stadium (New York Jets and New York Giants) have 1,350 panels with a capacity of 350 kw installed around the rim of the stadium. NRG Stadium (Houston Texans) has 599 panels with a capacity of 180 kw installed on walkways leading into the stadium, according to a spokesperson. 

GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City Chiefs) had 75 kilowatts of solar panels installed in 2014 at the stadium and surrounding complexes, according to a press release from the team. The release said the panels generated enough power to cook 1.5 million brats a year, though it is unclear whether advances in brat cooking technology in the intervening years has affected that number.

Surprisingly, it can be a bit tricky to track down details about stadium solar panel installations, something you think teams would be trumpeting from the roofs of their solar-covered walkways. (It can be tricky to find a live voice at the end of an offseason switchboard, too.)

Bank of America Stadium (), FirstEnergy Stadium (), Ford Field (), and Heinz Field () all have had solar panels installed, but didn’t have the information publicly available or return requests for details.

The Indianapolis Colts also have some solar installed at their practice facility and headquarters, but they’re miles from their home, Lucas Oil Stadium.

Fourteen stadiums don’t have any solar, including the home of this year’s Super Bowl, SoFi Stadium in sunny Los Angeles. After word gets around about this year’s prestigious new Solar Bowl, it’s almost certain the remaining stadiums will be scrambling to challenge this year’s champs.