A bit of history (just for the hell of it).
It was Reagan who more than doubled that federal gax tax (from $.04 to $.09) in the 80s:
Quote:
On this day in 1983, President Ronald Reagan gave the green light to one of his pet proposals, a gas tax hike designed to raise funds for the nation's roads and bridges...
...paving the way for the Federal gas tax to be increased by a nickel. The heftier tax rate in turn promised to raise $5.5 billion a year for highway repairs and general transportation maintenance. And, though the president was not one for using public funds to stimulate employment, some legislators estimated that the tax increase would help create roughly 320,000 jobs.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...rticle&id=5658
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GHW Bush then raised it another 50% to $.14...then Clinton added a few more pennies.
It hasnt been raised since 1993 and IMO, it wouldnt hurt to raise it again and to focus the additional funds on developing and supporting energy efficient technologies (w/ most of the funds still going to infrastructure improvement as initially envisioned).