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Energy Policy
Well I got me to thinkin' (dangerous I know) over the weekend about our current N-er-gee policy (or lack thereof) and I was in no particular hurry to get out to my hunting spot (having risen early) so decided on a little experiment keeping my speed down to 55mph or less the entire time but for about 25mi of highway on my return trip that 55 wouldn't be safe (did 65, still sketchy). Result = 18.25mpg, 1.75mpg better than my usual and 2.75 better than if I'd done the speed limit on mapquest's suggested route (mostly interestate).
So discuss: A return to a low national speed limit (maybe 60mph).
Some notes:
My rig will travel well over 600 miles on one fill at that speed
By taking my BRB (back road boogie) route I shaved 15mins and a bunch of miles off mapquest's proposed route
I drove a lot to shoot just four doves
Diesel fuel = 2.859/Gallon (cheapest seen lately was 2.769/g)
One fill at that price will be over one hundred dollars US.
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When I bought my truck 2 1/2 years ago it cost $80cad to fill with diesel. Last week it cost me $125cad. If i drive like a grandma I can coax a little more than 460km out of a tank, if I drivelike a teenager I get about 350km. (I've got 2 tanks).
If I'm working/driving and charging by the hour I have more budget to do actual work if I drive fast. With a charge out rate of a little more than a dolarl a minute I don't worry much about fuel costs. If I have to drive long distances I would rather pay $10 more and get there an hour earlier. A slower speed limit on freeways will only make people speed because let's face it, those roads were built for speed.
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Hey how about this, you get to drive 55 + 1 mph for each mpg you get over 20. So driving my Honda Civic that gets 50mpg I can go 85, and I will still be getting better gas mileage than your truck.
Doesn't work of course since it is speed differences, not speed that kills.
But that it what I hate about a law like that, a blanket 55 mph just puts you to sleep on a long trip, saves gas, but wastes time (How much is your time worth?) and worst of all from my point of view lumps someone (like me) who drives a gas efficient car in with those people who are driving huge gas guzzlers that they only buy for the status.
How about instead.
Unless you can prove you need the vehicle for work, IE a pickup truck for a contracter, there is a rolling gas guzzler tax. Let say zero for anything that gets 30mpg on the highway/25 City (which any decent, family sized car/van should be able to do and is close to the average vehicle fuel economy which was reached in 1987 of 26.2 miles per gallon before SUV's started becoming popular ) and scaling at a cost of $200.00 for each 1mpg less down to 20mpg and $400.00 after that. So you buy a SUV that gets 15 mpg you will pay a tax of $4000.00. The kicker is that this money MUST go to alternative fuel research, nothing else.
Now there is an immediate pain to buying a fuel wasting vehicle instead of just the long term pain from paying for the gas.
This way you don't penalize lower income familys like just increasing fuel costs will, and perhaps having a big addition showing on the sticker price will dissuade some people from buying something they don't need.
Or, maybe not....
