The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
It feels like that when a (CNN-dubed) “influential republican senator” finally agrees with me, in part, on how to conserve gas — lower the speed limit on highways.
An influential Republican senator suggested Thursday that Congress might want to consider reimposing a national speed limit to save gasoline and possibly ease fuel prices.
Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.
Congress in 1974 set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10 a gallon.
See, lowering the speed limit makes too much sense, when coupled with car pooling, and work on more energy efficient vehicles. Nope the big oil companies and their friends in the WH would rather rape the land. Somehow, something that will take some 10 years to come to fruition is a solution for the now. Go figure.
But, the weird thing is, this was never a republican idea, and in fact anyone that suggested such a horrible thing as speed limits was villified by republicans (and their supposedly libertarian friends). (and I’m not the only one that recalls the same)
I agree that reducing the national speed limit to 55 would save gas. I doubt that current sentiments would support that, however. With reduced highway patrols it would be virtually unenforceable.