President Obama has flatly rejected his transportation secretary’s suggestion that motorists be taxed on the number of miles they drive rather than on how much gas they buy, according to an AP report.

Whew. Dodged that bullet. It’s so damn typical of Northeasterners, who rely more on public transportation than other parts of the country and who also have shorter distances to travel, to stick it to those of us out West who must drive everywhere, often great distances. Not to mention that taxing the mileage instead of the gasoline kills any incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars. And how fair is it to suddenly hit suburbanites with such a tax, while fellow citizens who happen to live closer to work, pay much less.

Similar suggestions have been made in Colorado recently. One can almost see officials drooling over the miles people rack up commuting into Denver. This in a city struggling to keep its air pollution under control by encouraging the use of hybrid vehicles. Go figure.

As if that weren’t bad enough, there’s the issue of how to track and tax all that mileage. Pshaw! All it takes is a teeny tiny little government GPS tracking device in every car. Yep, I’m sure we’ll all be fighting to be first in line for one of those!

I hope the State of Colorado is wise enough to follow the President’s lead.