I have written on several occasions that now is the time for the President and Congress to act and reduce the speed limit on the Interstate System in an effort to reduce the use and consumption of oil and gasoline. Recently, according to the Associated Press, Senator John Warner suggested that Congress might want to reimpose a national speed limit to save gasoline. Senator Warner asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodmon to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology.
The Arab Oil Embargo during the 1970s prompted Congress to lower the speed limit on the Interstate Highway System to 55 MPH. Studies showed that action saved 167,000 barrels of oil a day and reduced deaths on the System by 4000 per year. Today the number of auto's on the highway has probably doubled what it was during the 70s so just think how much oil and gas would be saved and how many more deaths would be averted from speeding accidents.
It is a fact that the action taken by Congress and other conservation measures taken by the federal government reduced our dependence on oil and gasoline and brought down the cost of both to acceptable levels. But with oil and gasoline now at record levels, the President, Congress and the two Presidential candidates have offered nothing in the way of legislation to discourage consumption. They are AWOL on the subject.
Senator Warner should be complemented on his actions but there is no need to restudy the matter. We already know reducing the speed limit will work and what it will save. Action is needed now. Bush, McCain, and other neocons' answer is more drilling and production of oil. In other words, keep our country addicted to oil and gasoline and its price surges and have the people and our economy dependent on the Oil and Gas Industry, the very people who are responsible for this problem do not want to see the problem solved. Our direction should be at conservation and consuming less and less of oil and gasoline.
The problem is not a shortage of oil or gasoline as the country has been brainwashed to believe. $140 barrel oil and $4.00 gallon gasoline is a result of Bush's approval of Cheney's secret meeting with the Energy Industry, the unnecessary war in Iraq, speculation by the Oil and Gas Industry, the massive debt created by Mr. Bush's policies and a weak dollar because this President has never had a true economic plan to deal with the economy. No one should ever forget that T. Boone Pickens, an oil executive, publicly was quoted as saying gasoline should be about $4.00 per gallon. Well, we have not only attained, but passed that price.
It is a known fact that the American Oil Companies are sitting on millions of acres of land they either own or lease for drilling and exploration but have yet to drill. This land is in the United States. Does any one think this land would be idle if there was a shortage? But guess what? They want the Congress to open up ANWAR and other areas to drill. They do not know how to tell the people the truth.
The time is past for Bush and Congress to act. If the leadership of this country and the future President continue to ignore thenecessary "Greening of America" and fail to start that program now, $200 barrel oil is just around the corner. President Kennedy once said our problems are man made, and therefore they can be solved by man. Too bad we no longer have leaders like Kennedy.
