Wasted Gas
It's Time To Do Something About Gas Prices
By Robert R Barney
We have been running a series of stories concerning the gas/oil crisis for the past few days in an effort to educate our readers The Plain Truth about why we are facing food, oil and gas increases. There is a conspiracy all right, but the conspiracy is not one we might expect. No, we don't have people getting together (other than the gas companies) fixing prices. Instead we have a conspiracy of greed, ignorance and down right malfeasance by government leaders. For instance, when I was a youngster in the early 1960's, I would ride through cities whose traffic lights were all synchronized to certain speed limits. If a driver followed the posted speed limit, they would NEVER stop for a traffic light. Some 45 years later, I see no such technology. I will give you a personal example. When I drive from my manufacturing plant to my store (about 35 miles), I use about one gallon of gas for the first 31 miles and almost 1/2 of a gallon for the last 4 miles! Why? Traffic lights. It takes nearly 15 minutes to drive 4 miles. The Department of Transportation estimates that 17 billion gallons of fuel are spent each year while cars sit motionless at traffic lights. That's 17 Billion with a B! Western countries have among the highest usage rates of gasoline per person. The largest consumer of gasoline in the world is the United States, which used an average of 386 million US gallons (1.46 gigalitres) of gasoline each day in 2005.
Now let's do some math. The average driver consumes 464 gallons per year (gov't. stats). If we divide 17 Billion by 464, we realize that 36 million people gasoline consumption is at traffic lights! 36 million people could have free gas if there were no stop lights, or smart lights. How many people drive in America? Maybe 100 million? My conclusion of smart traffic lights (and sometimes no lights at all), would reduce our consumption of oil by nearly 30.
If gasoline companies were forced to blend their gas for ultimate gas mileage, we would realize another 10 - 15 saving. I have already proven that adding just 15 more S-150 (already in your gasoline) to your gas will give you 20-25 better gas mileage.
If we forced Congress to drill for oil everywhere in America, most reports claim that new production would equal 20 of the total gas demand inthe United States. If we were to give huge tax credits to cars that got over 40 miles to the gallon, we would save another 15 of oil consumption. If America got mass transit and passenger train service back to par with the rest of the world, most experts agree that the reduction in gas usage would be a staggering 20!
Add up all of the above and see what you come up with. Without changing our lives, we could see a drop of oil consumption by almost 50-65! It is simply that easy. Unfortunately, special interest groups, environmentalist communist, big oil and big government actually like the status quo and if YOU John or Jane Q Citizen doesn't demand action, we will not get actions, only empty promises.
