This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.
People are proposing all kinds of extreme measures to lower gasoline costs, including offshore drilling in areas that would destroy ecosystems despite no additional gas (or savings) for at least a decade.
But there are simple things you can do to immediately lower your gasoline costs by an average of 15 percent. The steps are outlined in a useful new Web site on EcoDriving sponsored by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The site is user-friendly, and offers a variety of educational tools, including an informative video and extensive tips on fuel-efficient driving and maintenance practices.
2 Comments
you say “People are proposing all kinds of extreme measures to lower gasoline costs, including offshore drilling in areas that would destroy ecosystems despite no additional gas (or savings) for at least a decade.”
Drilling is “extreme”!? First: it doesn’t destroy ecosystems. In fact, oil rigs create artificial reefs that help ecosystems. Oil drilling off the California coast reduces the pressure in the oil field and actually reduce the amount of “natural” leaking of crude into the ecosystem. Second: the mere fact that we are committed, as a country, to finding our own sources of oil will lower costs almost immediately. Even if thats not the case we will have the oil we need in the future. There is currently NO reasonable alternative to fossil fuels. Hopefully that will change but until it does we need the fuel. If we had started drilling in A.N.W.R. ten years ago as had been proposed then we would have the fuel NOW. So lets start drilling there NOW so we will have it in ten years. We certainly can’t lower fuel costs by NOT drilling.
If you are really concerned with the environment then we need to build many new nuclear power plants to replace the polluting coal burning plants now in service. Also reducing our “carbon footprint” in the process. We could also use these to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen and use the hydrogen to power our cars. Thereby reducing our “carbon footprint” to zero. Then we could use crude oil for plastics and the many countless other products that are currently being made from it.
Give us “real” alternatives. Not riding bikes and keeping our tires properly inflated. I already do those things. My job requires that I drive a van vast distances to repair air-conditioning equipment. There is no other option in this. It requires a full size van for the tools and parts I must carry to do this work. Unless you find an alternative fuel then I am stuck. Get real.
I just posted an article today on why drilling in ANWR is such a terrible idea:
http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2008/09/11/anwr_oil_drilling/