Congress hasn't successfully increased the federal fuel tax since 1993. Not only does the tax revenue fail to keep up with inflation, but improved gas mileage eats away at its purchasing power. Emerging hybrid technologies will further erode that power by shifting vehicle dependency from oil to the power grid...the (2005 federal gas trust fund reauthorization) legislation also included 6,500 other earmarked projects -- up from fewer than 100 in the 1982 bill. Some would say that without a clear national purpose -- like the construction of a major highway system -- the federal transportation bill has become little more than a giant local public works project. As former Federal Highway Administration Executive Tom Downs put it, our current national program is "adrift and sinking under the weight of parochialism." Read More ›