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Warner wants return of 55 mph National Speed Limit
AP ^ | 7/4/04 | H. JOSEF HEBERT

Posted on 07/04/2008 6:07:31 AM PDT by wendy1946

" WASHINGTON - An influential Republican senator suggested Thursday that Congress might want to consider reimposing a national speed limit to save gasoline and, in turn possibly ease fuel prices. ADVERTISEMENT

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.

Congress in 1974 set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10 a gallon.

As motorists headed on trips for this Fourth of July weekend, gasoline averaged $4.10 a gallon nationwide with oil hovering around $145 a barrel.

Warner cited studies that showed the 55 mph speed limit saved 167,000 barrels of oil a day, or 2 percent of the country's highway fuel consumption, while avoiding up to 4,000 traffic deaths a year.

"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," Warner wrote Bodman...."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


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Between the Warner/Lieberman cap/trade bill and this, a case could be made that Warner is our worst US senator.

Anybody who lived through the 55 mph insanity prior to 1996 will have vivid memories of large numbers of vehicles bunching together in inpenetrable clusters and people doing increasingly crazy things to try to get past them. Studies around that time clearly demonstrated that roads with 65 mph limits were SAFER than those with 55.

Aside from that and assuming aerodynamic drag is not a major factor, modern cars will get their best mileage at the point at which valve timing becomes efficient in top gear which for many if not most cars is going to be somewhere in the 65 - 75 range, and not 55. A car with a five speed gearbox will actually often get better mileage in fourth gear if forced to run at 55.

1 posted on 07/04/2008 6:07:31 AM PDT by wendy1946
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To: wendy1946

DRILL our own oil NOW!


2 posted on 07/04/2008 6:10:30 AM PDT by Ben Reyes
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To: wendy1946

westerners will never accept that.

warner should be retired.


3 posted on 07/04/2008 6:11:45 AM PDT by ken21 ( people die + you never hear from them again.)
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To: wendy1946
way misleading...it wasn't a national speed limit.
The Feds threatened to withhold road funds to any state that didn't reduce their speed limit to 55 mph.

there were a couple of states that told the feds to pound sand.

4 posted on 07/04/2008 6:11:56 AM PDT by stylin19a
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To: wendy1946

Here’s an alternative.
Send Congress into permanent recess.
Let the people make the laws by internet “town meetings”.


5 posted on 07/04/2008 6:12:36 AM PDT by devere
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To: Ben Reyes

Maybe the politicians will start taking a bus instead of a plane and save some fuel.


6 posted on 07/04/2008 6:12:55 AM PDT by Radl
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To: wendy1946

Looks like another GOP statist wants to impose their will on the states.


7 posted on 07/04/2008 6:14:37 AM PDT by PastorTony
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To: wendy1946

Oh yeah. They really want a reprise of the 1970’s. “Breaker, breaker, westbound cornflake. How’s it look over your shoulder?”

“Who we got here?”

“ay, you got one eastbound Mr. McNasty here. We down.”

“ay, you got a picture taker, your side, 15 mile marker. Don’t forget to smile and brush your teeth. Then you can put the hammer down, peddle to the metal, and boogie. We down.”


8 posted on 07/04/2008 6:15:00 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: wendy1946

Aside from that and assuming aerodynamic drag is not a major factor, modern cars will get their best mileage at the point at which valve timing becomes efficient in top gear which for many if not most cars is going to be somewhere in the 65 - 75 range, and not 55. A car with a five speed gearbox will actually often get better mileage in fourth gear if forced to run at 55.
************************************************
55 is an atrocious idea ,, I recognize that aerodynamics make up the majority of the load at 75mph but even in a 1970 Cougar I would get better mileage at 70 than 55 as I had the cleveland engine with huge intake ports and cylinder filling and fuel atomization absolutely stank at lower rpm. The last long distance road trip I made was in a VVTI equipped Camry and I got 34mpg at 80-85 mph ,, the car had mo special mods ... engine rpm was just below the point where VVTi would kick in..


9 posted on 07/04/2008 6:16:39 AM PDT by Neidermeyer
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To: wendy1946
I'm surprised he didn't suggest mandating bicycles.

What a schmuck!

ML/NJ

10 posted on 07/04/2008 6:16:39 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: wendy1946
This idea will go over like a lead balloon. People want to arrive at their destinations FASTER, not slower. It is embarrassing that it is a Republican Senator who came up with this instead of leading the charge to develop our own God-given natural sources of oil and expanding our use of nuclear power.

BTW, does anyone know exactly where in the Constitution that it gives Congress the power to control how fast we can drive on our own state highways?
11 posted on 07/04/2008 6:19:10 AM PDT by srmorton (Choose life!)
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To: wendy1946

My Mercury Mountaineer gets better mileage at 60mph than 65mph.


12 posted on 07/04/2008 6:19:23 AM PDT by krb (If you're not outraged, people probably like having you around.)
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To: wendy1946

It was a dumb idea then and an even dumber idea now.


13 posted on 07/04/2008 6:19:41 AM PDT by WHBates
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To: All
Aside from that and assuming aerodynamic drag is not a major factor, modern cars will get their best mileage at the point at which valve timing becomes efficient in top gear which for many if not most cars is going to be somewhere in the 65 - 75 range, and not 55. A car with a five speed gearbox will actually often get better mileage in fourth gear if forced to run at 55.

Typical in the bad old days (mid seventies or thereabouts) was the EPA rating the Alfa Romeo at around 22 mpg and that was in the age when nobody made small cars over 2000 lbs; the whole world knew that Alfas got over 30 mpg when running at 75.

14 posted on 07/04/2008 6:20:23 AM PDT by wendy1946
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To: Daveinyork; All

Also a remake of Smokey and the Bandit..


15 posted on 07/04/2008 6:20:27 AM PDT by KevinDavis (Barak Obama: The Candidate of Clarification)
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To: wendy1946

Hey Warner, I got a better idea. How bout building American nuclear power facilities and drilling for American oil on American soils and building American oil refineries in America.
You sound like the typical rino lib leftist bs man.


16 posted on 07/04/2008 6:20:41 AM PDT by ohhhh (Republicans are now liberals, Democrats are Marxists. Lord, help conservatives.)
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To: wendy1946
How about we ban the use of private jets and while we're at it lets ban the use of government aircraft too except for Air Force 1.

Everybody including Al Gore and Congress and the UN wonks and the Pentagon fat cats, Secretary of State right on down the line can fly commercial and we'll save the airlines.

Drill now and start building refineries, build nuclear plants and stop subsidizing ethanol producers and remove the import restrictions on foreign ethanol. Finally, get rid of the twenty million illegal aliens using gasoline and screwing up the labor market.

17 posted on 07/04/2008 6:21:48 AM PDT by johncatl (...governs least, governs best.)
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To: wendy1946

Warner needs to go away.


18 posted on 07/04/2008 6:21:59 AM PDT by csvset
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To: devere; jimrob

Send Congress into permanent recess.
Let the people make the laws by internet “town meetings”

I nominate this as the best Damn Fourth of July post!

Truly..when congress was first created, it was to represent collective interests of people that had no other way of meeting and organizing. It is the greates national liability today.


19 posted on 07/04/2008 6:22:07 AM PDT by mo
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To: wendy1946
Let's see, Congress just mandated the use of CFL (Compact Florescent Lamps) to replace incandescent bulbs. Which means they have now mandated the use of devices containing a toxic substance, mercury, in every home.

A couple of years ago, congress mandated the change in the daylight savings start and end dates to allegedly save energy. How much was saved? According to a study in Indiana.... less than none. (i.e. more power was used earlier in the day to make up for the darkness)

Congress mandated the use of food for energy (turning corn into ethanol) result: higher food prices.

There might be some savings from a reduction in the speed limit, but at what productivity expense? Truckers will have to be on the road additional thousands of hours. Truckers are limited to the number of hours they can drive in a day/shift. Which means more stops. Which means more delays.

There is a rather large ID Ten T problem in W-DC on both sides of the aisle.

Vote all the %$#$@#@ out.

ID Ten T = ID10T

20 posted on 07/04/2008 6:22:21 AM PDT by garyb
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