Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday urged state legislators to extend the general excise-tax exemption on gasoline blended with ethanol.

The general excise tax on most gasoline was suspended in April when new rules went into effect requiring that gasoline sold in Hawai'i contain at least 10 percent ethanol. The suspension was meant to encourage the use of alternative, renewable fuels.

That tax break expires tomorrow, which could add about 11 cents to a gallon of regular gasoline sold on O'ahu at the start of the new year.

Hawai'i consumers now pay 50.2 cents a gallon in federal, state and county taxes, which was the 10th- highest in the nation in October, according to a survey by the American Petroleum Institute. Tacking on the general excise tax lifts the total tax on gasoline sold in Honolulu to 61.5 cents a gallon.

That would be the highest tax in the nation and 16 cents higher than the national average tax of 45.5 cents a gallon.

Lingle proposed adding three more years to the tax exemption for gasoline during the last session of the Legislature, but legislators didn't adopt Lingle's proposal.

"I encourage legislators to recognize the impact to consumers as well as the need to continue to provide incentives to use alternative fuels by extending the general excise tax exemption when they reconvene in January," Lingle said in a news release.