Washington (Platts)--22May2009

Despite the urgent need to rebuild US bridges and highways, the Obama
administration remains opposed to paying for such projects through an increase
in the federal gasoline tax, according to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

"We think when people are out of work and the economy's in a recession,
that it's not a good time to be talking about raising the tax," LaHood said
Thursday at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington.

"We know it's been a good trust fund to fund roads and bridges, and we
need to build on that and find ways, other ways to do it, perhaps even
public-private partnerships that have been used around the country very
effectively."

The government uses the 18.4-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline sold in
the US to pay for roads and public transit. Congress had to provide emergency
funds last summer, when the fund was depleted.

Some lawmakers have called for an increase in the tax, which has not been
raised since 1993.

Meanwhile, LaHood said, the US Department of Transportation is making
billions of dollars available for highway projects from the recently enacted
economic-stimulus bill.

"The DOT has made more money available to states, more quickly than any
of our other routine programs," he said. "For example, the highway portion of
the stimulus package is flowing at a rate of $4billion a month, nearly twice
as fast as traditional highway dollars.

--Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com