To laugh or cry...

...Ah, the travails of competent Government.  Fund and incentivize alternative energy sources for vehicular transportation, then propose Orwellian solutions to the "problem" of declining gas tax revenues.  Budget 300 Million for a special committee to investigate the feasability of such a system, then eventually say it was all simply some sort of mistake, but make the case that additional revenues would have to come from "somewhere".

It would be hilarious, if not part and parcel of modern Governance.

The White House on Thursday walked back a proposal to tax people based on how many miles they drive. 
 
The proposal was included in a draft of the administration's Transportation Opportunities Act, but a White House spokesman said it "was not an administration proposal." 
 
"This is not a bill supported by the administration," White House spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said. "This was an early working draft proposal that was never formally circulated within the administration, does not take into account the advice of the president’s senior advisers, economic team or Cabinet officials, and does not represent the views of the president.”

The legislation the White House is distancing itself from calls for creating a Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office within the Federal Highway Administration. It would be tasked with creating a "study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems."

House Transportation Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) has indicated that he did not think a tax-per-mile proposal was politically palatable, but said Congress would have to look for ways to supplement declining gas tax revenues.