This is belaboring the obvious, but we obviously didn’t learn the last time this happened in the ’70s. Will we learn this time? Drilling more won’t help either, as world demand for resources scream for more economical vehicle solutions.
The loss of 400,000 barrels of oil a day caused by the closure of BP’s Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska could be offset if all the cars and trucks in the United States got just one extra mile per gallon of fuel efficiency, a prominent non-profit grouping of scientists said this week.
The report from the Washington, DC-based Union of Concerned Scientists also says United States drivers would spend $50 million less each day on gasoline with the modest improvement of gas mileage.
“The pipeline shutdown reminds us that we need to start kicking our oil habit,” the group’s Clean Fuels researcher David Friedman said in a statement. “Over the course of a year, that would be $18 billion that could be spent strengthening our economy and creating jobs across the country.”
I agree completely.
I was recently in Europe and drove a small diesel which had no trouble getting 1000km to the tank. I’m told passenger diesels such as these are often barred from the US on the grounds they pollute too much. I wonder if you considered how much less fuel they use if theay actually do pollute any more than US gasoline cars.
Amazing…it’s as if Supply and Demand actually work. ;->
GM doesn’t agree. They are sticking to their guns offering the biggest gas guzzlers going, besides the Dodge Ram and Durango. No wonder Toyota is posed to take over as the #1 car maker.
Supply and demand shouldn’t result in waste. That’s the logic that made the passenger pidgeon extinct.
I want a smart car. Has anyone out there driven one? they seem to make sense and might be a lot of fun.
I don’t know the technical details, but it is the emmissions laws that screw the US in terms of milage.
For example – the 60mpg Smart car will only do 40mpg when in the US… I wonder if someone here knows the technical reasons?
I ride my 4 stroke motorcycle that is much more environment friendly than most cars. It spends as little as a diesel car. Having a gasoline engine the type of particles are not as harmful as those of diesels. Even traveling at the same speed I usually get there much faster as I don’t get stuck in the traffic. This means my engine is not running for so long. I also don’t spend fuel looking for parking spaces.
When I *have to* ride my car, it gives me no fun whatsoever anymore. So, I drive real slowly. Many times, even much slower than the legal limits. Talk about fuel economy. The bike is all I need to satisfy my need for speed excitement, without feeling that guilty about it.
A friend of mine just bought a new Toyota Camary HyBred. I drove it, I was blown away! Smooth quiet powerful and the darn thing was getting 60 mph. OK it only got 40 mph when it floored it on the freeway. No wonder those darn Prius’s go flying by me all the time. ha!
WTF is wrong with all the other car companies? Has Toyota got the magic bullet? These guys are going to own the car world eventually it seems. Well, I still want a twin turbo Porsche Carrera 4 with ‘overboost’… I’ll save up my carbon credits for a blast to Vegas across the Mojave at night. 8^)
Bill it’s my understanding that Toyota owns many of the essential patents for hybrid auto’s. Essentially every maker is using a Toyota design. I doubt Ford and GM are that pleased to pay Toyota for every hybrid they sell. They had rather push their own power plants. This amount of fuel can be saved by conservation also. You don’t have to spend the weekend driving all over town. Plan your errands, and make fewer trips.
I dont want to comment, Iv said it before in other posts and HATE to repeat myslf…
The comments about Toyota are right on target. While Toyota unveils and deploys upgraded technology, Ford and GM counter with one stupid recycled sales gimmick after another. Zero percent interest, employee discounts, yada yada yada. Whoop-dee snot! It’s still the same old washed-up 20 MPG gaz-guzzling internal combustion engine. Of course, gotta protect those overpaid union jobs, don’t we? Can’t allow technological progress to interfere with union featherbedding, can we?
Too bad we don’t have people like Bill Gates and Michael Dell running the auto industry. We’d see real technological progress.
hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
burn!! now ride those bikes!!
*** but we obviously didn’t learn the last time this happened in the ’70s. Will we learn this time? ***
Very stupid thing to say, typical of this blog. Even if cars WERE more fuel efficient, this pipeline issue would still be EXACLTY the same problem it is today, and some money-grubbing organization would be whining that yet an additional 1.1 mpg improvement would mitigate THAT disrupted flow of oil.
Actually, we HAVE learned lessons from the 1970s — oil used to be a major fuel for power plants; by now oil-fired plants are nearly extinct. Big windmills are killing birds in the California deserts instead, yippee. Car engines have continued to become far more efficient and new powertrains were developed that are in use. The economy is FAR more efficient in terms of oil-per-dollar of GDP output. Cars were becoming more fuel efficient until oil became so ridiculously cheap that people rationally decided they valued other things, such as space and power and roof-mounted DVD players, more than additional miles per gallon.
What’s the dumb point of an article like this anyway? As long as we use oil AT ALL — even if we did nothing with it but make vinyl records for constipated old audiophiles — than a supply disruption causes problems, and you could point out that making vinyl records with slightly less oil would ease THAT problem. Ho hum.
TRAINS, if we wouldn’t have screwed up all the funding way back when is was a great idea to build interstates. You would prob. be able to take a train from SF to LA in just a matter of an hour or two. We americans have a warped since of public transit.
Well, Shaky, a reasoned Conservative statement opposing sensible engineering and conservation might exist somewhere — but, not in your mind or mouth.
Aside from the fact you don’t know what you’re talking about.
4,
“supply and demand”??
They can SUPPLY as much as is needed in MANY MANY things, They JUST dont order enough.
Iv seen BOTH sides…
If EVERYONE wants it…Prices go up…But WHat is considered, Everyone..
In computer parts, thats LESS then 1,000,000 perple WANT it.
This is an estimate, but…THINK that about 40% of the US has a computer, and MAYBE 10% of those have the KNOW HOW to fix/make/build a computer.
300,000,000 persons, 120,000,000 MAY be using a computer, and 12,000,000 MIGHT know how to fix/make/build a computer…
IF they would give us OPTIONS for buying GAS or an alternative CHEAPER, the line would streatch accross TOWN.
This isnt Supply and demand, WE HAVE no alternative in MOSt of the country. NOT even Gasohol is available in MOST areas.
everyone yaks on and on about oil…how it affects us when there is a disruption…..it dosen’t matter diddly how much oil we produce or have available to us on any given day….because the thing that matters most to the avaliable supply of gasoline is refining capacity. Which we are using as close to 100% as we can ever get……there is always a portion off line due to normal matinance, so we are never at a real 100% of capaicity.
We haven’t built a new refinery in this country in almost 30 years….which means we are trying to supply 2006 fuel consumption with plants built to supply 1976″s fuel needs. Plus, the newest of them is 30 years old, which means more down time for repair and such.
A small article was out about 4 or 5 days ago that apparently no one but the experts noticed, and it said that our holding facilities for oil are at 97% capacity and will be full in 4 months. We actually will have tankers sitting offshore of our refineries and tank farms that can’t offload the stuff. Reason:…we can’t refine the stuff fast enough. Also means gas prices can’t drop, because the limit of production has essentially been met.
But, this dosen’t mean there is plenty of oil, it just means we can’t refine it as fast as needed.
There’s no reason in the world that milage can’t go up. If the politicians would get some balls and require the big auto makers here to meet the minimum milage figure for the best selling foriegn built auto sold in this country. That would raise the milage by at least 3 or more miles per gallon.
(Comment deleted for violation of posting guidelines – Ed.)
13,
Shaky,
Why call me stupid? You are being a jerk.
If we are still driving gas-guzzlers, we haven’t learned. Don’t you understand the concept of context? If I had a picture of a power plant, your other comment might have made some sense. As the image is that of a gas pump, I am obviously referring to automobiles.
It is obvious to even the most casual observer that our auto industry is in trouble, and will only recover by being acquired by or merging with overseas manufacturers. They saw the future and built towards it, and we didn’t.
The sadder thing is that you are trying to be disingenuous, but you don’t have an intelligent argument. There are ways one can make a vehicle more fuel efficient while still providing quality, as demonstrated by our overseas competitors.
You also ignored my comment #4, which addresses the issue of waste. Just because it is easy to tap a resource does not mean that one should waste it, especially if it is a valuable resource. There isn’t even a surplus in any real sense because the damand is rising exponentially as the rest of the world catches up with us in consumption per capita.
Conservation is good business sense, unless you are a wastrel that cares not for the future.
Then again, people like you don’t care about anyone beyond your tiny little world.
Joshua,
We are kindred spirits in so many ways…
Tbh except for “executive” type cars, european buyers *expect* to get 40mpg plus from new vehicles they buy – building engines with inefficient fuel consumption is a bit of an American phenomenon tbh. I just wonder what will happen when the oil eventually runs out – in Europe we have a fair to good public transportation system that connects across the continent… whereas in the US…
1. I’m told passenger diesels such as these are often barred from the US on the grounds they pollute too much.
I thought that was due to higher sulfur content in US diesel causing more pollution, and/or consumers avvoiding diesels because of the sulfur smell of the exhaust.
The new standards for lower-sulfur diesel which just went into effect in June of this year may make diesels more “palatable” from both an aroma and pollution aspect.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/ulsd/index.html
The purpose of the rulemaking is to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) from heavy-duty highway engines and vehicles that use diesel fuel. The new rule requires refiners and importers to produce highway diesel meeting a 15 parts per million (ppm) maximum requirement, starting June 1, 2006;
Consumption of highway-grade diesel (500 ppm) accounted for 68 percent of the distillate fuel market in 1999, although 9 percent went to non-road (rail, farming, industry) and home heating uses. Higher sulfur distillate (more than 500 ppm sulfur), used exclusively for non-road and home heating needs, accounted for the other 32 percent of the distillate market.
Look up ZAP cars, IN brazil…
they are trying to import them HERE, and making them Diesal/Gas, insted of the Alcohol versions..
I didn’t know there was a hyphen in the word “Today”.
The 70’s must have been wild times…
24,
I have a 20 year old, Olds that gets better gas milage then 90% of the cars in the last 10 years…
I get 30-35 at 70+mph… and the OLD VW did better then Anything out in the last 10 years..
where is the improvements??
AND, there ARE regulations to gas milage.
Supply and demand is in effect; as long as the SUVs, the big assed RVs, the two wheeled weekend warriors and all the low rent “yachtsmen” keep lining up to fill their tanks then fuel prices will remain high. If people start spending some quality time at home instead of doing thousand mile trekks every three day weekend we should see a moderation in prices. If we all just went home and stayed for a week then they’d start giving the stuff away.
Supply and demand is working exactly as expected. People are buying more fuel efficient cars as the price of fuel goes up. Market adjustments are never instantaneous and thus it takes a few years for the rise in prices to affect people’s buying decision when it comes to replacing a vehicle. If prices stay high, eventually the demand for gasoline will drop and equilibrium between the gasoline powered and alternate fueled vehicles will be hit.
Ya, I would BUY a NEw car if it got better milage then My OWN…
Except for 1 thing…Im POOR…My car cost $1200, and get 30+ MPG at 70+ mph…and is 20 years old..
There ARE other option, but DETROIT wont release them, and the GOV, wont let other countries BRING them in..
Work at home. All the technology is here. Equipping 2000 employees with notebooks and cellphones is more economical than building a fully furnished office for 2000.
30,
Ya, I can see the cashier doing it LONG distance..