Sound and bad solutions abound on methods to save gasoline through conservation. Some individuals have had the nerve to actually recommend penalties like Detroit Democrat Dingle’s fifty cents tax per gallon of gas. That alarms me but it depends on who you talk to I suppose. If you are talking to a guy who owns his own small construction company and who drives a work truck full of equipment who has to get 14 MPG driving that monster or else let his company crash then he would certainly know pain from such a surcharge or excise tax.
What everybody does agree on is that something needs to be done. Oil was trading Tuesday at an astronomical $108 a barrel after earlier topping $109.
The national average for a gallon of gas is now at $3.24 and in California it is $3.58 per gallon! .
The United States imports about two-thirds of its oil, so we can't do much about the supply side of the equation. What we are able to control is demand, and this can be accomplished via greater fuel efficiency, conservation and increased transit alternatives.
Here are a few suggestions.
Demanding new mileage requirements from Detroit: The biggest broad stroke solution that we can effect as a country to loosen the chains that have us bound to Big Oil would be to substantially boost the minimum required mileage for new vehicles. The last increase was four years ago and it set the bar that new cars had to average at least 27.5 mpg and light trucks such as sport utility vehicles 20.7 mpg.
Late last year, Congress enacted the first significant overhaul of so-called corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards since the 1970s. Automakers will now be required to raise average MPG for both cars and light trucks to 35 mpg by 2020.
I say that they can do better. I say the nation's minimum mileage average should be no less than 50 mpg by 2020.
Sure, automakers will whine that this is an unreasonable goal or that it would make their products too expensive for most consumers, don’t let them fool you. The Union of Concerned Scientists tells us that with the existing technology, cars would be raised up to 40 MPG minimum without have any significant impact on prices. And, besides, thee and me both know that they have those computer sensors on cars made after 1995 rigged so that cars can only get so much MPG. They just need to unhack them!
I have no doubt the Japanese and South Koreans are ready and able to meet this challenge.
Lower speed limits: Fifty-five saves fuel and lives. It was true then and it's true now. Don't like it? Tough.
Telecommuting: Tax breaks should be given to businesses to encourage them to allow their employees to work from home.
In L.A. specifically, tax breaks also should be offered to businesses that create branch offices closer to workers' homes, thus easing commutes and gas costs.
These are a few ideas. No shortage of ideas exists, this is for sure. Some are broad stroke type ideas and some are things that we can enact on an individual basis. Some of them good, some of them… not so good!
So what do you do if you want to reduce your gasoline usage?
Here is the best that I know of…
WATER4GAS is offering information for a fee which individuals can use in their garage or wherever to put together a small device which infuses hydrogen into the gas/air mixture that their vehicle runs on.
What this does is make smaller particles out of the ones that the system uses as fuel. Therefore the engine is able to use much more of it.
With WATER4GAS you can minimumly expect to reduce your gasoline usage by 12%. But many are getting 30-50% improvement or even more. Those goblets must have been pretty "blankin'" huge in some engines before. But with WATER4GAS they are made usable so you can reduce your gasoline usage.
It also helps make emissions substantially cleaner.
This information has been purchased by over NINE THOUSAND car owners already and happy members number about 99%! So that's a start!