The Commonwealth of Virginia currently mandates that most passenger vehicles display two license plates—one on the front and one on the back. While this policy may seem minor or administrative, it has direct financial, environmental, and practical implications. With a growing number of states abandoning this outdated requirement, Virginia should follow their lead. Eliminating the front plate requirement would save money and reduce environmental harm, without compromising effective traffic enforcement, safety, or toll collection.
Requiring two license plates for every vehicle doubles the state’s costs of manufacturing, distributing, and managing license plates. With roughly 8.4 million registered vehicles in Virginia, removing the front plate could save taxpayers significant money. These funds could then be redirected to more critical budget items, or better yet, to reduce taxes.
Twenty-one states, including neighboring North Carolina and West Virginia, only require a single rear plate. Three states recently abolished their two-plate mandate: Ohio dropped its front plate requirement in 2020 and realized annual savings of $1.4 million, Utah dropped its front plant this year and will save $1.75 million per year, and in 2022, Alaska moved to a one-plate system.
The idea of moving to a single plate in Virginia is not new. In 2013, Senator Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) introduced SB 771 which proposed to move to a single plate requirement. Despite the fiscal impact statement estimating an annual savings of $1.8 million, it was stricken by Sen. Wagner in Committee. An updated fiscal impact statement would likely show even greater savings today. In 2015 Del. Bill R. DeSteph, Jr. (R-Accomack) introduced HB 1832 which would have ended the front license plate requirement for cars not designed to have front plates. It also died in Committee.
And, just this year, the General Assembly considered SB 1458, introduced by Senator William Stanley (R-Moneta), which would have allowed drivers to drop the front plate in return for paying a fee of $100. This bill was killed in Committee on a close partisan vote. Senator Stanley’s $100 fee was an acknowledgment that many high-end vehicles, specifically imported luxury models, are not designed to accommodate a front license plate. Complying with the two-plate mandate requires drilling holes into the front bumper of a vehicle, damaging the vehicle’s aesthetic and resale value. Paying a minimal fee of $100 to forgo the front plate damage or potential tickets is a reasonable trade-off.
The environmental and strategic impact of maintaining a two-plate requirement is another important consideration. License plates are made from aluminum, a highly energy-intensive material whose production contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. While aluminum is recyclable, demand for primary aluminum remains high. The United States produces less than 2% of the global supply and relies significantly on imports to meet its demand. In fact, last year, the US imported 3.2 million tons of aluminum from Canada. The US no longer has the capacity to produce the amount of aluminum we need. By cutting aluminum used for duplicative plate production, Virginia could lessen the demand and conserve this vital material for more important uses, like national defense.
Because we import most of the aluminum we need, it is becoming significantly more expensive due to President Trump’s new tariffs on steel and aluminum. President Trump initially raised aluminum tariffs from Canada to 25 percent in March of this year, then doubled that rate to 50 percent beginning this month. While the tariffs have been paused for 90 days, that pause is scheduled to end on July 21st. This is causing significant supply constraints which will only get worse when Canada retaliates by limiting the sale of aluminum outside of Canada, as it has warned.
Aluminum has several uses that are far more valuable than the manufacturing of unnecessary plates, these include aircraft, advanced weaponry, electrical infrastructure, and construction materials. Every license plate represents a small but real strain on this valuable resource. Not only could Virginia cut the costs of license plate production but simultaneously provide extra aluminum to support critical projects, aid the national defense stockpile, and help inch us closer to our environmental goals. Hopefully, this would also lead other states to join our switch.
The main argument for keeping the front plate is that it is necessary for law enforcement and toll collection. Proponents argue that front plates help identify vehicles involved in crimes, traffic violations, and toll evasion. However, modern technology makes these concerns obsolete.
Automated License Plate Reader (LPR) technology, used by the US Customs and Border Patrol, Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement, is incredibly effective at capturing images of the rear license plate in various settings. There is no evidence that the 21 single-plate states are experiencing a decline in public safety or toll revenue collection due to a lack of a front plate. If this were an issue, two-plate states would address the thousands of cars driving on their roads from single-plate states – like the thousands of cars from West Virginia and North Carolina that drive Virginia’s roadways every day.
Single-plate states like Pennsylvania, which has the “toll by plate” system in place, prove tolling and safety are not an issue. There simply is no justification for the state to require manufacturing twice the number of plates as needed, when LPR systems are fully capable of retrieving identical information from a single plate, and when there appears to be no real safety justification.
Virginia should join the 21 single-plate states in abandoning the wasteful and environmentally harmful duplicative requirement for both front and rear license plates.
Gabrielle Brohard is a Research Fellow for the Thomas Jefferson Institute and can be reached at [email protected].