Earth Equity News

Obama Nixes Plan to Tax Motorists on Mileage. By Joan Lowy, AP, February 20, 2009. "President Barack Obama on Friday rejected his transportation secretary's suggestion that the administration consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy. 'It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration,' White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, when asked for the president's thoughts about Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's suggestion, raised in an interview... A day earlier. Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation's transportation system moving, LaHood told the AP. 'We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled,' the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said. LaHood spokeswoman Lori Irving said Friday that the secretary was speaking of the idea only in general terms, not as something being implemented as administration policy. Most transportation experts see a vehicle miles traveled tax as a long-term solution, but Congress is being urged to move in that direction now by funding pilot projects. The idea also is gaining ground in several states."