Do yourself a favor: drive your vehicles slower to save money

by William Atkins

Monday, 07 July 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! Republican Senator John Warner recently suggested re-imposing a U.S. national speed limit to save gasoline. However, we won’t  need a national speed limit if all drivers voluntarily slowed down and used other fuel efficient measures. It would also be good for the world. Senator Warner asked the U.S. Department of Energy to determine “at what speeds vehicles would be most fuel efficient, how much fuel savings would be achieved, and whether it would be reasonable to assume there would be a reduction in prices at the pump if the speed limit were lowered.” [CNN: “National speed limit pushed as gas saver”] The Virginia senator asked Energy Secretary Samual Bodman to investigate what average speed limit would provide the best gasoline efficiency for today’s motorized vehicles. Warner is basing his suggestion on the national 55 miles per hour speed limit instituted, in 1974, in response to energy problems with the Arab oil embargo. The 1973 oil crisis began on October 17, 1973, when members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that they would no longer ship oil to countries that had supported Israel in its conflict with Syria and Egypt. This ban involved the United States, its allies in Western Europe, and Japan. The U.S. National Maximum Speed Law was a provision of the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act. It limited all highway speeds to 55 miles per hour (90 kilometers per hour). This limit was intended to conserve gasoline as a countermeasure to the 1973 oil crisis. This law was modified twice in the late 1980s to allow 65 mph (105 kilometers per hour) limits. In 1995, it was repealed, returning the power of setting speed limits to the states, when oil went back down in price. However, in 2008, with average gas prices topping $4 per gallon a lower national speed limit may help, but not solve, the nation’s problem with high oil prices and rapidly depleting reserves of oil. Warner included in his suggestion to the Energy Department the 1974 plan where the national speed limit was set at 55 miles per hour (mph). He stated that the reduced speed limit saved 167,000 barrels of oil each day—and saved the lives of 4,000 drivers per year (4,000 less deaths occurred on our highways). We now stand at over 40,000 deaths on U.S. highways each year. The savings of oil directed to the lower speed limit was cited as being about 2% of the U.S. fuel consumption in motor vehicles during the time it was instituted (between 1974 and 1995). Warner stated to Bodman, “Given the significant increase in the number of vehicles on America's highway system from 1974 to 2008, one could assume that the amount of fuel that could be conserved today is far greater.” [CNN:] We all can do something right now to reduce our costs for gasoline and oil. Please read on. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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