A proposal to use a federal gasoline tax increase to pay for carbon-emissions research is frustrating builder associations that want the money for highway construction.
"Ultimately, we have very limited opportunities to make the investment that everybody says we need in our transportation system," said Brian Turmail, spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America. "We should not be wasting those opportunities, ever."
...Senate's carbon reductions bill include a gasoline tax increase to pay for research into fuel-efficient vehicles and carbon emissions.
Charles Komanoff, co-director of the Carbon Tax Center in New York City, said he does not support using the gasoline tax to pay for carbon research, but he does support the greater message. The construction industry, he said, needs to accept that highway spending must be reined in.
"We've got to stop building new roads and building more lanes," Komanoff said, "and we have to kind of develop a fix-it-first approach."
The U.S. House of Representatives last year passed a carbon bill that does not include a federal gasoline tax increase. That bill would set limits for U.S. carbon emissions and establish taxes for industries that produce or burn fossil fuels.
Those taxes, Komanoff said, eventually would be passed on to consumers, meaning, at least theoretically, that people will drive fewer miles. And if people drive less, there is less need to direct money toward highway construction, he said.
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