Published: June 21, 2008 11:30 pm            

Reduce speed limits to cut gas consumption

Published Sun., June 22, 2008

If the politicians are serious about reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and also cutting emissions, then there are some simple steps they could take to help achieve those goals beyond the hyperbole spewing out of Washington.

There has been a lot of taxpayer money put into the ethanol industry over the past few years, but natural events have shown how unreliable such a notion is. Currently, most of the gasoline bought at local stations contains 10 percent ethanol.

While ethanol reduces tailpipe emissions from vehicles, an Environmental Protection Agency Report showed gasoline mixed with ethanol actually reduces fuel consumption from 1 to 3 percent, so it is doing little to lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

America’s energy policy, is a hotly debated topic, to say the least, but maybe the simplest initial step to reduce the nation’s oil consumption would be to reduce the speed limit. On most highways and interstates around East Texas the speed limit is 70 miles per hour.

Until the mid 1990s, on rural roads the speed limit was 55 miles per hour (mph,) with interstate speed limits of 65 miles per hour. In 1995, the speed limits started increasing.

It wasn’t a problem then as gas was less than $1 per gallon. Enter 2008, with gas prices at $4 a gallon, encouraging drivers to use more gas by allowing higher speed limits no longer makes sense.

The U.S. Department of Energy claims that for every 5 mph a vehicle travels over 60 mph is like paying 30 cents extra per gallon of gas, with gas prices at the national average of $4.08 per gallon.

Speed limit reductions have happened before. In 1973 Richard Nixon lowered the speed limit to 55 after the Arab oil embargo to help cut back on the nation’s oil consumption.

The results from reducing the speed limit are real. A driver going 60 mph instead of 70 mph increases fuel efficiency by about 15 percent.

For a vehicle getting 20 miles per gallon going 70 mph, the same vehicle will get 23 miles per gallon going 60 mph.

Extrapolate that out for a vehicle racking up 20,000 miles per year. A 15 percent increase in efficiency could mean an extra 3,000 miles. That’s 150 gallons of gas. At $4 a gallon, that’s $600 saved over a year’s time.

Those are real benefits drivers can see at the pump. The problem is, this is an election year and politicians will be reticent to enact anything remotely unpopular, such as a reduction in the speed limit.

Americans are struggling to make ends meet and the ever increasing costs of food and fuel are beginning to take a toll on the average consumer. With the recent flooding in the Midwest, corn has been setting record highs on the commodity market on a daily basis.

Don’t play politics with the country’s energy future. Lower speed limits now and get us on our way to true energy independence.

        

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