"Vehicle Miles Traveled."

The NRDC and other environmental groups, fresh from their victory in the fuel-efficiency debate, are turning their attention to issues such as reforming land use rules to promote denser development and concentrating more public spending on better mass transit systems for metro areas, he says.

Another commentary here:

Choice was not good enough. Too many motorists refused to be shamed into buying vehicles they didn't want. Either that, or too few American car buyers could understand the destructiveness of their bad decisions.

Either way, the only sure way to get more Americans to buy vehicles that get lots of miles per gallon was to take away those bad choices.

No choice, no problem.

...VMT standards will replace CAFE standards as the next best way to pry cars away from American motorists.

The VMT fight will concentrate on limiting miles traveled by emphasizing laws to reform land use to promote denser development while increasing government spending on mass-transit systems.

Too many Americans are choosing to live in the wrong place and travel too much in their cars.

For the greater good, this must be changed.

Right now they're talking "encouragement." But I'm taking bets on eventual tracking meters in your car that will tax you by how far you drive. As fuel taxes decline with higher mileage standards and the coming electrics, they're going to be getting cash hungry anyway. And once you have the trackers, who knows what else might be accomplished for the "greater good?"

The people who like this kind of thing seem to be irked by the idea of people just...driving...anywhere they want anytime they want. Even in small, electric cars.