Applied Rationality: "Anybody who thinks that global warming is a serious problem should gladly accept the small increase in travel time for the substantial reductions in gas consumption and environmental degradation...If everyone obeyed the existing traffic laws, oil imports would go down substantially. Stated another way, every extra mile over the speed limit and every jack-rabbit start effectively puts dollars in the hands of Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, and the House of Saud."

Comments

[Bubba]

Good ideas all, I'm sure.

But why stop there?

Let's mandate a standard of no more than 75 bhp for any vehicle

Let's mandate a vehicle weight limit of 2000 pounds, accomplished by a ban on things like power steering, power brakes, power windows, airbags, impact bumpers/door panels, and anything put in to minimize noise, vibration, and harshness.

Let's mandate a 30 mph national maximum speed limit, with electronic speed governors.

Let's ban air conditioning.

Let's insist on a 100% value added tax on all fuel purchases.

In that same category, let's go back to the old "odd number day/even number day" system for allowing motorists to purchase fuel.

Let's see.....there must be something else we can add to this list.

[Ged]

Unless I misread the post, what is being said is that if everyone obeyed speed limits and traffic laws (things that have already been passed and agreed upon by state and federal governments) then we'd consume less oil as a nation.

We're not talking about making up new regulations here, we're talking about adhering to existing laws, which has the side benefit of helping to ween us off foreign oil and fight climate change.

Sounds pretty sensible to me.

[RB]

Oil resource depletion has already affected market conditions in my life (I'm over 50) e g gas price at the pump.

I live with it, but it gets harder, as days go by and oil/energy prices continue to rise.

Applied Rationality's admonition is commendable as far as admonitions go.

I drive to use less gas, for selfish reasons. I am a minority where I live and drive (Lincoln and Milford Ne.)

It is very, very common for me to see jacked up 2x and 4x4's and muscle cars of all sorts speeding around on the public streets.

Europe is paying around 7 or 8 US$ for gas. I think that is where pump prices are headed in US. I don't look forward to that circumstance.

[Jeffrey Sykes]

I've yet to decide if Chavez is good for his country and is alleviating poverty and disease there or is just another demagogue. Either way, I still buy my gas at Citgo. I like the idea of sending my money to South America instead of the Middle East.

I recently began buying BP gas also. They do not operate in Saudi Arabia.

[Bubba]

Well gosh, then.....if we can't change behaviors of drivers, and we don't want to mandate specification (except maybe CAFE standards, right?), and we don't want to empower Chavez or the Saudis, and realistic alternative sources of fuels will not be practical for many years, then perhaps we should look for a solution right here at home.

[Ed Cone]

Who said we can't get drivers to change their behavior?

Just shifting social/status conventions around SUVs would be a great start. Seven years ago I wrote, "One day, we'll look back at the SUV craze and shake our heads at the whims of fashion. Consuming so much space and fuel and clean air in such an ostentatious way will seem gross and tacky to us."

About time.

[cara michele]

The conspicuous consumption of the SUV craze was evident to a lot of folk from the beginning.

[Ed Cone]

And yet somehow my column from May 2000 failed to change the culture overnight. Quite a shock, that.

I got a lot of grief for that column, mostly from people who skipped over this part -- "SUV drivers quickly start talking about their right to drive what they please when the negatives come up, but it's not a right they have to exercise" -- and talked about their right to drive what they please.

[cara michele]

Yeah, that's one of the hallmarks of American culture -- our "rights." On the one hand, it's a wonderful and blessed thing to live in a free country, where we enjoy so many rights and privileges. On the other hand, it's annoying and frustrating to constantly hear about how everybody's individual "rights" trump the welfare of the community as a whole. The ideal would be for me to think of you first and for you to think of me first and so on and so on, and then we'd all be OK. But instead, we pretty much live in a "me first!" culture. And, you know, ergo, we have a lot of SUVs. It's just a natural consequence. ;)

[Ged]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We have to make a move to the "we", not "me" mindset. There are ways to enjoy everything life has to offer and *still* do what is right for the environment and society. They are not mutually exclusive.

[Wendell Sawyer]

RB wrote: "Europe is paying around 7 or 8 US$ for gas. I think that is where pump prices are headed in US. I don't look forward to that circumstance."

I had heard similar statements about US versus European gasoline prices for years. I assumed that the high cost of gasoline in Europe was caused by supply and demand factors.

Instead, I discovered that the wholesale price for gasoline in the US and Europe is about the same. The reason Europeans pay such high prices at the pump is because of the exceptionally high gasoline taxes imposed by their respective governments.

John W. Schoen, Senior Producer at MSNBC.com, wrote:

"In most of the industrialized world, including Europe and Japan, pump prices are much higher than in the U.S. – even though the wholesale price is roughly the same. The difference is a heavy tax load those countries impose to discourage consumption.

"As of April 10, drivers in the Netherlands were paying the equivalent of about $6.73 a gallon at the pump. The gas itself cost $2.61; the rest — $4.12 — represented tax. That’s a 158 percent tax. By comparison, the U.S. has the lowest tax on gasoline of any industrialized country: about 15 percent at current prices."

I honestly don't think that congress or the state legislatures are willing to take such dramatic steps, fearing the political fallout.

[Bubba]

"Just shifting social/status conventions around SUVs would be a great start."

Yeah, let's make them the functional equivalent of lepers.

Good luck.

SUV sales figures rise and fall in relation to the price of gas at the pump.

Why don't we try a 100% value added tax on the things, and a 1000% percent increase on all fees associated with them?

Or do you think, as Wendell has done above, that Congress or the state legislatures would not be willing to take such dramatic steps?

[RB]

Wendell, yes, we buy from the same wholesale market - the difference is taxes.

Most remarkable to me - but off topic - is you found a MSM source to state that.

I read The Oil Drum regularly where one can find citizens of those locales offering their perspectives.

I also don't expect elected officials to be leading on this issue. It's up to the individual to lead by example.

On the one hand, I am grateful for their shortcomings, as it will leave more $$ in my pocket. But in the balance, I believe I am paying more in the form of limited sustainable options available.

[JoeBob]

I'm a big man almost 300 lbs. I drive an SUV because I need the room and because I take my poodle Redman whereever I go and I want him protected if I'm ever in an accident which if I ever was would probably be because of some idot drving to slow. If you wont drive as fast as me get out of my way. I got important places to go like the Golden Coral buffay. And those yeast rolls move my bowels sow I'm in a hurry to get home to. So just mind your own business and let me live my live and dont worry about it because Tom Brokah wrote a book about how I deserve everything I got coming and you do naught. So just sit down in your tin can Toyota Pius and shut hup and keep out of my lane and dont buy gas if you cant afford it.