Want to really cut into the oil companies profits?

[canoeist52]

Forget the boycotts and no gas days. This actually uses less gas!

Slow Down a Little, Save a Lot of Gas

by Peter Valdes-Dapena
Tuesday, April 1, 2008

“Speeding on the highway adds a surprising amount to your fuel costs.
With gas prices rising, gas-saving advice abounds: Drive more gently, don't carry extra stuff in your trunk, combine your shopping trips.
This is all sound advice but there's one driving tip that will probably save you more gas than all the others, especially if you spend a lot of time on the highway: Slow down.
In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like the price of gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon. That figure will be even higher for less fuel-efficient vehicles that go fewer miles on a gallon to start with.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/104752/Slow-Down-a-Lttle-Save-a-Lot-of-Gas

I always thought the repeal of the 55 mph was politically motivated

[LiberalEsto]

1. That's why we had a 55 MPH limit

back in the 70s-80s. The gas crisis of 1974 shocked Congress into passing a national 55 mph speed limit in order to conserve gas.

I can't recall when it was abandoned, but people in big empty western states complained that they needed to be able to drive faster.

[grannylib]

2. Yeah, that crackpot Jimmy Carter and his conservationism...

what a looney. :sarcasm:

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. It was imposed under Nixon, rolled back under Reagan and repealed under Clinton

I say "rolled back" because under Reagan, states were allowed to raise the speed limits on rural sections of interstate to 65 MPH. Under Clinton, the 1974 act was repealed, allowing states to revert back to their speed limits before 1974 if they chose to. Not all did. The most famous and short lived was Montana going back to their "Reasonable and Prudent" speed signage which lasted about 4 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law

I can't recall when it was abandoned, but people in big empty western states complained that they needed to be able to drive faster.

I take it you have never had to drive across Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska or West Texas. 55 MPH across long stretches will literally bore you to death, by making driving so tedious that fatigue sets in, thus making the likelihood of an accident higher.

[LiberalEsto]

5. I've driven through Kansas & Nebraska

back in 1976 during the 55 mph limits. Boring, yes.
But I'd rather have boring, than have no gas at all.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. No problem. Keep right except to pass. n/t

[Sal Minella]

4. When the 55 limit went in, the E.R. trauma cases at our hospital dropped off so abruptly we assumed

the ambulance companies were boycotting us for some reason, but phoned around and found the car crash trauma cases had dropped off at all the other hospitals too.

Another benefit of the 55 limit.
Or (if you're a for-profit hospital) a reason to argue against it...

[mac2]

8. Our representatives don't do what is in our best interest

that's why we are in this mess in the first place. They lack the will to go up against the powerful energy corporations. They have the power to do something but won't.

Exxon is suing a town on the Alabama coast. We should sue for their price fixing, and refusal to pay for their damage to Alaska and it's people. The CEO of Exxon is just a plain crook and thug.

[Angela Shelley]

7. Thanks for spreading common sense

:-)

[zonmoy]

9. Go even farther

and take a bike or the bus everyplace you go.

[crazymans economics]

10. There are several things we can do...

1) Make a full pledge to nuclear energy
2) Pressure the Kennedy's', Kerry's' and other residents to allow the windmills off the coast of their little enclave
3) Source out all means of domestic drilling and set high environmental goals to minimize damage
4) Remove our dependence on OPEC and Saudi Arabia. There will be a belt-tightening period as they try and play hard ball, but eventually they will know they need the US to keep us their lavish lifestyles.
5) Offer real incentives to improve solar, wind and hydro power to actually make them cost-effective.
6) Detroit could revive as a city if there were a true alternative to the gasoline powered internal combustion engine developed. (Maybe it has already...)

THAT would be a good start.

[zonmoy]

11. I think we need to find a way to move past the era of fossil fuels if possible.

if we fail to do that the outcome will be quite ugly. pretty much the last chapter of the novel by piers anthony Isle of Woman (Geodyssey).