Earth Equity News

U.S. Highway Trust Fund Veers Toward Crisis. By Richard Simon, LATimes, July 21, 2008. "As motorists cut back on their driving and buy more fuel-efficient cars, the government is taking in less money from the federal gasoline tax. The result: The principal source of funding for highway projects... [the] federal highway trust fund could be in the red by $3.2 billion or more next year. The fund, set to finance about $40 billion in transportation projects next year, is increasingly strained... as lawmakers face a backlog of projects... [To close the gap,] federal highway spending nationwide could be cut by a third beginning Oct. 1... 'The condition of the highway trust fund has been deteriorating for years, but skyrocketing gas prices have made an already dire situation worse,' said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), head of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee... In the long run, lawmakers must figure out whether the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax, which helped bring in money when fuel-hungry SUVs were hot, is still a viable way to fund transportation projects amid heightened concern about gasoline prices, U.S. dependence on foreign oil and global warming... But one possible solution -- an increase in the gas tax, which was last raised in 1993 -- is considered unrealistic in an election year. A proposal to shift $8 billion from the general fund to the highway trust fund has considerable support in the Senate... [though] a number of Republicans... say it would trade one problem for another... President Bush proposed shifting cash from mass transit to highways, which ran into opposition in Congress because commuters are increasingly turning to bus and rail lines... But Murray said: 'Without a fix soon, we could face having to cut all federal highway funds by a third simply to keep the trust fund solvent. That is the last thing we should be doing.'"