Posted on 05/01/2005 6:19:00 AM PDT by MississippiMasterpiece
President Bush made it clear last week that he sees no quick fixes to the nation's energy woes. The problem has been long in coming, the argument goes, and so will the solutions. But if history is any guide, there is one thing he could do immediately: bring back the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit.
It has been done before. Along with record oil and gasoline prices, improvements in fuel efficiency and a lasting economic recession, speed limits helped curb fuel consumption for the first time in American postwar history between 1974 and 1984.
Of course, energy eventually became cheap again, the economy expanded and Americans became complacent and unwilling to make more sacrifices.
Instead of opting for small fuel-efficient cars, people switched to large sport utility vehicles and larger pickups. As drivers groaned and states fought for their right to speed, the limit was raised.
While oil consumption in most industrialized nations has either leveled off or declined, in the United States, oil demand has soared 38 percent since the first oil shock of 1973.
The Bush administration's focus over the last four years has been to increase the supply of oil and natural gas, which are also priorities for the energy industry, instead of finding ways to cut back on energy demand, which until very recently has been left out of the picture.
"We are in a boxing match, and the president keeps one hand tied to his back," said Steven Nadel, the executive director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit research group in Washington. "We're punching with supplies and not using demand. We're at a disadvantage."
Other industrialized countries, especially in Europe, have been much more successful than the United States and have managed to actually lower oil demand, or at least keep it in check. That comes from higher diesel use and higher taxes. In France and Germany, a gallon of gasoline sells for as much as $6, with taxes accounting for about 80 percent of that.
Few politicians in America might risk ridicule or rejection by explicitly supporting higher taxes on gasoline, one of the surest ways to limit the nation's dependence on oil.
"Even the least outrageous gasoline tax would have choked off some demand, and the money would have gone to our own government instead of being transferred overseas," said Robert K. Kaufmann, a professor of geography at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University. "Of course, that would have to involve personal sacrifice, which is off the table politically."
There are other ways to curb consumption that may be only slightly less challenging, analysts say. One would be to increase the average mileage per gallon requirement. After Congress passed legislation forcing automakers to act in 1975, average mileage almost doubled to 27.5 miles a gallon in 1987 from 14 in 1972. But it has since slipped back to 24 because of S.U.V.'s, and Congress shows no inclination to toughen the standards.
Another way to sharply reduce demand - and improve mileage - would be to encourage drivers to buy diesel cars, which offer as much as 60 percent more fuel efficiency, said Theodore R. Eck, an energy consultant and former chief economist at the Amoco oil company.
"The neat thing here is that this is off-the-shelf technology," he said. But the trade-off to diesel fuels also includes higher emissions of nitrate oxide, a pollutant that is responsible for smog.
In a recent speech, President Bush suggested that diesel cars might be made eligible for similar income tax credits as hybrid cars, which are quickly turning into best sellers with long waiting lists.
The present predicament behind high oil prices is quite different than the oil shocks of the 1970's and 1980's, which were a result of producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cutting oil supplies. Today, the price shock comes from rapidly increasing demand, driven largely by China, but also by the United States and its strong car culture.
After rising 33 percent in the last year, crude oil prices in New York slipped below $50 a barrel on Friday for the first time in 10 weeks. They closed down nearly 4 percent at $49.72 a barrel.
Still, Americans can expect to pay record prices for gasoline this summer. According to the latest national average compiled by the Energy Department, gasoline prices at the pump averaged $2.24 a gallon, up 42 cents from last year; they are expected to touch a record $2.35 a gallon this summer.
Polls show that higher gasoline prices are increasingly hurting Americans, and the president is pressing Congress to revive an energy bill that has been stalled for four years.
Since the last energy shock of the 1980's, the economy as a whole has shifted toward services and away from heavy industry and is now less dependent on oil than it once was. But that has been more than offset by the rise of oil demand for the transportation sector, which accounts for two of every three barrels of crude oil consumed here; gasoline alone amounts to half the nation's oil consumption.
"We've had this situation building up for years, and yet the focus continues to be on the very long term," said Shirley Neff, an adjunct professor at Columbia University and a former economist on the Senate Energy Committee. "We have to focus on demand and be more efficient in our energy use. We need something like an Apollo program for the transportation sector."
But restricting demand might also weaken economic growth, an unpalatable prospect for any government, especially at a time when some are already blaming energy costs for a slowdown in growth.
"It's true that there is a limit to what you could achieve through a traditional energy policy in one or two years," said Fridtjof Unander, an analyst with the International Energy Agency, which advises industrialized nations on ways to reduce their consumption.
The 55 miles-per-hour speed limit came as a result of the 1973 Arab oil embargo. The Nixon administration ordered states to lower their maximum limit to save fuel at a time when the first oil shock threatened to bring the economy to a standstill.
After steadily rising each year, gasoline demand suddenly stopped growing in 1974 and remained nearly flat for the next decade, keeping oil consumption in check.
Roland Hwang, the vehicles policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco, estimated the savings of the speed limit in 1983 at 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel, or 2.2 percent of the total use for these types of fuels.
But as gas lines faded from people's memories and energy prices went down, the federal speed limit was relaxed in 1987, allowing states to set higher caps of 65 miles an hour. Once more, gasoline consumption surged.
Smaller efforts today could make a difference. For example, driving at 10 miles an hour above the 65 miles-per-hour limit increases fuel consumption by 15 percent; inflating tires properly cuts gasoline use by 2 percent; keeping engines idle while in line wastes millions of gallons.
The trouble is that few drivers bother with these suggestions, Mr. Hwang said. "People are basically too lazy to pump their tires up."
Leave it to the UltraLeftist NYT to reminisce about the Carter years.
Leave it to the UltraLeftist NYT to reminisce about the Carter years.
It is not an argument, it is fact. He is offering physical laws unlike the ridiculous and unsupported statement you made initially. I have long since learned on FR facts make little difference to people who make declarative statements about their truck's, car's and gun's capabilities.
Five kids, although three of them are out of the house, sometimes we end up with them along with a son-in-law to haul around. On top of that, I am 6'4" and 220#, our son is 6' and 190". We just don't fit into a Cooper Mini all that well.
I'll bet there's not a place in New York City where the speed limit is as high as 55 MPH!
Idiots!
While the overall force required to push a vehicle through the air is definitely higher as speed increases, that doesn't necessarily mean that fuel efficiency decreases over a given speed range increase.
Miles per gallon used at a given speed depends on several factors, including the engine displacement, the RPMs at which the engine needs to turn to maintain that speed - and that is dependent on the overall drive ratio, the weight of the vehicle (including its load), the efficiency of the drivetrain, and the rolling resistance of the tires.
Sure, if you had two identical vehicles with identical drivetrains each tuned for maximum efficiency at a certain speed without considering any other factors, the one tuned for 55 will get better mileage than the one tuned for 75.
However, its very possible that a given vehicle will give better mileage at the higher of two speeds, depending on how that mix of factors combines for that particular vehicle at those two speeds.
The Slimes wants YOU to conserve while they and the rest of the elites can use all the energy they want.
"Got one in my Blazer, make SURE you have the throttle cable adjusted correctly, or you will burn it up."
No problem, I also put in a late 350tbi at the same time (65 chev pu) but I trashcaned the tbi and all the computer garbage and repalced it with an early carb manifold and point ignition and a diesel kit in the 700R4.
The big advantage with the trans is that it has an overdrive plus it only uses 18hp.
I also moved it forward so I don't have to run a shroud on the radiator and the ignition is no longer tight to the firewall. It also made the trans linkage work without modification, all I did was weld up the column fork for shifting and didn't even bother removing the clutch pedal.
Having drivin it over a million miles with the 3 speed it took a couple of weeks to stop trying to use the clutch!
energy consummed by an automobile at constant speed (such as on a trip on an interstate highway) is a combination of rolling resistance + aerodynamic drag. The rolling resistance component has to do with energy losses in the tires, plus frictional losses in the drivetrain. For the sake of a first order approximation, they can be treated as being essentially constant i.e., they don't go up very much with speed. Conversely, the aero drag is calulated using an equation that looks like:
where:
Faero is the retarding force produced by aerodynamic drag
A is the frontal area (of the car in this case)
Cd is the coefficent of drag (a unitless number that represents the relative aerodynmic "sleekness" compared to a flat plate)
rho is the air density
v is the vehicle velocity through the fluid medium, in this case air
Note that while the rolling resistance is a relatively constant value, the value of the areo drag component for a particular vehicle increases with the square of the vehicle's velocity. That means for most automobiles and trucks, the dominant component of drag at constant speeds above about 50 mph will be aerodynamic drag, and it's value is extremely dependent on velocity. EXAMPLE: a 10% increase in velocity will increase aero drag by 21%; an increase from 65 to 75 mph increases aero drag by almost a third!
In short, aero drag becomes the dominant source of drag on an automobile at constant highway speeds, and is extremely sensitive to changes in speed because it varies with the square of the vehicle's velocity
No 55 limits ever.
New York Slimes publishes a bunch crap.
I would never vote for any politician who voted to reinstate the stupid policy of 55 miles an hour.
However it would be OK for those RED States.
As areodynamics and fuel efficiency improve should we continue to slow down?
Hogwash is the correct response. Bring back the manual transmisson with 6th gear an overdrive gear. In my 1995 Z28 Camaro, I only turn 2,000 rpms at 65 mph. Oh yeah it runs on mid range octane and goes like stink if I'm feeling frisky.
Yeah. Right. While we're at it, we could all s**t in the dark, too.
I'm sick of these drooling, hand-wringing, pantywaisted libs who want us to "sacrifice" (horse and buggy, anyone?) rather than allow more domestic drilling, or build more refining capacity.......or even invest in serious alternative energy research.
Flush 'em.
No the liberals get more stupid as time goes by.
I HATED THE 55 MILE AN HOUR SPEED LIMIT AND STILL DO.
Out here in the West it is hours between nowhere.
Perhaps you misunderstand me; I'm no more in favor of the 55 mph speed limit than you are. If it were up to me, I'd say 80 or better is about right in non-congested interstates....
See my earlier post in which I address the issue of how speed limits are properly established i.e., by the 85th percentile rule. IOW, speed limits, to the extent that there are any, ought to be established based on safety, not fuel consumption issues.
Ha! I was driving back then, and I, like most Americans, did not change my driving habits. The guy who wrote this article probably takes a cab to work. But if you live in the West, where you may have to drive 75 miles to get to a decent store, then you will drive there going 85 mph, despite what the speed limit is. Who is going to give me a ticket? The one officer who is patrolling a 200 mile stretch (both ways..)? Nope. We'll ignore the silliness of a fake speed limit and just continue driving as fast as we please.
One can perform some coastdowns on the highway (time to go from 85 to 75, 80 to 70, etc), weigh your vehicle and get a rough approximation of the work necessary to go a certain speed. do this over a number of speed ranges and then calculate the required HP and regress is against speed. Then the next issue is getting the Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (lb/hr-hr in the US) table for your engine and find your engine operating speed and torque(or manifold pressure, throttle position etc) for each speed and gear and axle ratios and one can get good estimates for your FE.
Turns out that DI turbo Diesels have the best BFSC numbers and along with the higher energy content of Diesel fuel ( and the fact that Diesel "part throttle" BFSC is not that far from the BFSC near WOT) get some amazing FE. Don't forget that with a manual it's also a lot easier to coast. Coming down I-70 from the tunnel to Denver can be coasted at 60 to 80 most of the way.
One is still allowed to vote with one's right foot out West.
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