Proposed Oregon tax on mileage environmentally regressive

Let me get this right. Because people are driving fuel efficient cars, the state of Oregon is getting less revenue from its gas tax. The proposed solution? Replace the gas tax with a "mileage tax". Whatever happened to the idea of taxing carbon emissions? CGT reports:

A year ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced it had demonstrated that a new way to pay for roads — via a mileage tax and satellite technology — could work.

Now Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he’d like the legislature to take the next step.

As part of a transportation-related bill he has filed for the 2009 legislative session, the governor says he plans to recommend “a path to transition away from the gas tax as the central funding source for transportation.”

Sounds to me as if Kulongoski is off his rocker. Gas taxes need to go up. To tax mileage may fund road building, but it is environmentally regressive.