Commentary by Marita Noon

What are the Republicans thinking? Coming right out of the gate, at the start of the new GOP-controlled Congress, they began talking about the crazy idea of increasing the gasoline tax. It has little chance of passing, yet can easily taint the party with a tax-raising reputation.

Just two days after the swearing in of the new Congress, the January 8 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) headline reads: "Senate Republicans: Higher Gas Taxes are on the Table." It states: "Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R., Okla.), who just took the reins of the panel, said he is open to considering raising the gas tax as a way to help pay for the dwindling Highway Trust Fund that keeps up the nation's roads and other transportation infrastructure."

Many of Inhofe's Senate colleagues are clear about gas tax increase's future. According to the Associated Press (AP), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said: "I don't know of any support for a gas tax increase in Congress." The WSJ cites Senator John Barasso (R-WY), "who said he doesn't support an increase and doesn't think there is a political appetite for doing so on Capitol Hill."

The House isn't any more optimistic. According to the AP, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) doesn't think there "are enough votes in the House for a gas tax increase." Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman, said: "I don't think there's a will in Congress and the American People don't want it."

Even the New York Times touts: "Gasoline-tax increase finds little support."

However, Inhofe's apparent willingness to consider an increase in the gas tax, along with Senators Orin Hatch (R-UT) and John Thune (R-SD), has given fodder to those who long for a carbon tax. A San Francisco Chronicle article titled: "Odds of gas-tax hike grow with quiet support of GOP Senators," opens: "With Washington's most famous climate-change skeptic expressing interest in raising the federal gasoline tax, Bay area Rep. Jared Huffman sees an opening to grab the brass ring of the environmental movement: a tax on carbon." Huffman sees that "it's a good time to make the tax a little more sophisticated so it reflects the carbon content of all fuels."

The gas tax creates headlines because the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), which finances the interstate highway system, faces insolvency due to spending more than it takes in. Had Congress not come up with a solution to the $16 billion shortfall by August 1, 2014, federal highway projects would have ground to a halt and as many as 700,000 people would have received lay-off notices. An agreed upon "patch" put the crisis off until after the elections. That fix ends in May and the new Congress must now come up with another way to fund America's roads and bridges. A gas-tax increase is the obvious solution as the concept means those who use the roads most, pay for them