Nega-Watts: Reduction of Oil Use VS. Expanded Drilling

A few years back I remember our local government gave away free aerator faucet & shower heads, because the amount of energy savings through efficiency was greater than the amount spent to give away the hardware (including installation). Now imagine a similar scenario where the federal government issued coupons for every registered driver in America to get their car tuned up for gas efficiency. Or maybe coupons for home owners to get their home better insulate/sealed. We already know from experience that it works and have the numbers to show that the results are immediate, instead of say...20-30 years down the road. This link is to a Time.com article on how oil-backed politicians and Neo-Con pundits are trying to make fun of Obama's suggestion that if all Americans inflated their tires properly and took their cars for regular tune-ups, they could save as much oil as new offshore drilling would produce over the next 30 years. Unfortunately the jokes on them. From the article:

"The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points."

"...we can inflate our tires and tune our engines, as Republican governors Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Charlie Crist of Florida have urged, apparently without consulting the RNC."


Pic posted to Flickr by cristixcore.