I was listening to President Bush talk at a rotary luncheon this week and he brought up a time-of-day highway access charge. He cited raising fuel economy standards would cause less tax revenue at the pump.

There is this impending fear in government that increased fuel economy will reduce consumption based tax dollars, so new revenue streams are needed to build highways.

I find this difficult to comprehend as an impending issue when efficiency standards are years away and the current U.S. budget debt as of today is $9,148,076,623,766.32 more than the balanced budget of eleven years ago. To put it in perspective, it's like each citizen of the U.S. owes $30,000.

Raising fuel economy standards in itself grates against a spend and grow model of economic growth. "Economic growth" doesn't always translate into a sustainable quality of life for the masses in the future.

It is more likely that the petroleum market will burn itself out with high fuel prices triggering a self imposed fuel efficiency standard by consumers. People might be inspired to take public transportation, or maybe just walk; resulting in fewer highway dollars needed and more demand for public transportation.