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Seems to me that modding for power may be the greatest enemy to economy as well. Like many of you have already said, we have plenty of examples of high performance vehicles getting sub-par mileage...and plenty of examples going the other way (metro's, miatas, etc).
I think there are probably a few exceptions to the rule however. Any mod that allows the vehicle to put more of its ftlbs to the ground (as opposed to gross hp at the crank) seem to help FE. I'm thinking specifically of removing rotating mass on the engine (AC, pwr steering, fan clutch, crank pulley's etc). These mods all make the vehicle more "lively" (because you no longer have to accelerate this extra mass), but do not provide the vehicle with more gross hp.
On the other hand, most mods that have big gross power gains seem to kill HP (exhaust, compression modification, bore/stroke, head work etc, etc, etc).
Is there a happy medium? Sure, there would almost have to be. The problem is that many people aren't even trying to find it. We have a pretty good list of mods that improve FE (see wiki), and quite a few of them would make your vehicle quicker (aero mods, freeing up hp).
I've been down both the power and economy roads myself recently. Theres a reason my Charger gets 2-4mpg and my little s10 is flirting with 30mpg. Different applications call for different methods...AND YIELD DIFFERENT RESULTS for mpg.
I've been babbling on here for quite a while (Anthropology class is boring), but I guess I just wanted to throw my own $0.02 in with everybody elses. There may be a fine line where you can mod for both power and effeciency, but generally you're going to get to a point where you have to choose between them.
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