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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."
If you "feel good" driving 55 MPH, go for it. Maintain the peak performance of your vehicle, and you won't have to drive 55 just to "feel comfortable" about saving a few dollars here or there.
Of course it has, it was instigated during the Jimmy Carter era, which was probably the most depressing time that the United States has ever suffered.
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No. On long runs at 75-80 MPH, my car get 28 or 29 miles per gallon. When I just driver around town, it gets 21-22 miles per gallon. Build more nukes to conserve the oil. Build more refineries to get cheaper gasoline. The NY Times editorial board is a bunch of elitist liberals who want to tell us all how to live.
The 55 mile limit induced recession and will do so again. By disrupting the flow of goods and the increased labor costs, the reimpostion will destroy the economy.
Did Jimmy Carter write this?
From a strickly today centered economic viewpoint...the economic value of the time put into driving varies from $15 to $100 an hour....Assuming 60 mph and 20 mpg, and $2.20/gal, the fuel cost of driving is $6.60/hour.
So to lower the speed limit is to trade a much more expensive resource "labor time" for a less expensive resource "fuel".
There might be an argument from a conservation standpoint.
But one fallout of the 55 mph speed limit is that major metropolitan areas got to where they ignored the speed limit and it wasn't enforced. I think that teaches a general disrespect for the law. So if we did put in a limit, we as a nation need to be prepared to enforce it. And we just are not there.
That will do nothing to solve the issue...
Besides, if I drive correctly, I will get the same MPG at 70 as I will at 55....
An interesting site which monitors the insane wet dream ramblings of the Jayson Blair types writing for the NY Slimes has another BS article of Mouawad. He wants us to be like the French with very high taxes on gas and energy.
Times Watch for October 5, 2004
Taking the High (Tax) Road to Energy Efficiency
A front-page Business Day story by Jad Mouawad shakes its head at America for being (according to the headline) a "Slow Learner on Energy-Efficiency Front."
Mouawad's Tuesday story begins with liberal-sounding snark: "The United States, land of gas-guzzling S.U.V.'s and air-conditioned McMansions, might do well to turn to the country some Americans love to hate for lessons on how to curb its reliance on imported oil: France."
Later Mouawad insists that federal speed limits are an example of America "taking the high road": "The contrast between French resolve and American abandon in recent years is sharp. The United States, too, took the high road in the 1970's and early 80's, when the combined impact of the 1973 oil embargo, the growing power of OPEC and the Iranian revolution of 1979 created long gas lines and raised the prospect of an oil producers' stranglehold over the American economy. The price of Arabian light crude rose from $1.85 a barrel in 1972 to $40 in 1981, or $80 in today's dollars. Americans responded with a nationwide speed limit of 55 miles an hour, a home-insulating boom and a blossoming of energy-technology start-ups to help businesses cut their energy bills."
Mouawad's "high road" seems to mean high taxes as well. Mouawad talks to unlabeled liberal "experts" who advocate them: "But with oil now at $50 a barrel, double what it was two years ago, and with many analysts expecting substantially higher energy prices in the next decade than during the 1990's, some experts are saying that both government and industry are going to need to do some fundamental rethinking of some basic policies. 'The lack of emphasis on demand in the past 20 years in the United States has a lot to do with the predicament we're in now,' said Ashok Gupta, an economist with the National Resources Defense Council. 'We need to look at what it will take to get manufacturers to offer technologies that people want.' One obvious step, which politicians are loath to even mention, would be to increase taxes on gasoline. Here again, the divergence between the United States and Europe is instructive. To encourage the use of mass-transit systems, and finance their development, European governments impose generally high taxes on gasoline. French drivers pay over $5 a gallon for gasoline, $3.75 of that in taxes, compared with $1.90 a gallon on average in the United States, with only 41 cents of that going to taxes."
I sure hope that this article foreshadows the next round of Demo/Commie talking points. Let them hitch their electoral chances on raising gas taxes and lowering the speed limit.
If there were any serious concern about fuel prices would ulta-fuel efficient (EPA 38MPG City 46MPG Highway!) cars be on the clearance table at Filene's Basement?
How much has our population grown since 1973?
My energy plan:
Remove enviro impediments to domestic exploration and construction of new refineries.
End designer fuels, allow just one summer fuel and one winter fuel
Build Nukes!
Encourage more diesels
NYMEX wholesale gasoline for May delivery closed at $1.475/gal on Friday.
Most of the rest is TAXES!
1932 Taylor E-2 "Cub"
Country: USA
Wingspan: 35' 3"
Year: 1932
Length: 22' 3"
Engine: Continental A-40
Cruise Speed: 55 mph
Horsepower: 37
Gross Weight: 970 lbs.
Designed in 1930 by C.G. Taylor and advertised as "America's safe airplane", the E-2 Cub was the first one in a long line of aircraft models to carry the "Cub" name. The Taylor Aircraft Corporation, which later became Piper Aircraft Corporation, produced this airplane in 1932 as serial number 54. The E-2 was acquired in 1991 after fifty years in storage. The restoration to original condition was completed over a three-year period. This airplane is one of the oldest of the few E-2s known to exist today.
I will never understand the mentality of such a statement like this.
But in states in flyover country where there is a long way from point A to point B with little in between, death tolls increased as that 8 hour drive became a 10 hour drive and people fell asleep behind the wheel.
In winter (-30F not unusual) you do not just pull over and take a nap--if the engine quits, you can freeze to death.
Clean air and fuel filters, correct tire pressure and front end alignment do wonders for performance and handling. Simple things, but often not done.
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