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American Morning

Ask CNN: Is There a National Gas Tax to Fund Alternative Transportation Development?

Aired May 01, 2001 - 09:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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GORDON STELTER, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: My name is Gordon Stelter, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And I want to know if there's a national gasoline tax which is being used to fund alternative transportation development and create incentives for people to work from home instead of commuting?

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, different states use their state gas taxes differently. The federal gas tax is most famous for being used to build highways and bridges and improve road safety. Some of that money is earmarked for mass transit -- things like subways and trolleys and buses. Not a lot of federal money is being spent right now on telecommuting.

In terms of alternative-fuel research, that's coming from a lot of places. Even the big three automakers in Detroit are looking at other ways down the road to power their vehicles. The next big innovation everybody is talking about is these hybrid vehicles.

They burn gasoline, but they also generate some of their own power. So they get tremendous gas mileage. But as long as gasoline is so cheap, simple economics is going to dictate that a lot of us are going to choose to deal with the traffic, to deal with the pollution, if it means we can drive our own cars to work and the other places we want to go.

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