How to Solve Our Energy Issues

Instead of forcing automakers to improve fuel economy, a better way to save gas would be to lower speed limits and encourage telecommuting

Wouldn’t it be great if Congress really could legislate the U.S. out of its current energy problems? When you listen to the recent political debates, raising the fuel efficiency for new vehicles by some far-off future date sounds like a more-than-reasonable idea, provided you aren’t in the car business. But the fact is that any proposed legislation of this kind can do absolutely nothing to solve our current or near-term oil problems. Even legislated help, if it were to become effective this week, would do little to help today’s working-class Americans deal with the now three-year rise in the price of gasoline at all.


That reality seems to have been overlooked both by those debating (and lobbying) about raising the fuel efficiency of our vehicles to 35 mpg (more or less) and by those reporting it. Say this idea was to become law, and the start date for the improved mileage set at 2020: It would still take another 13 or 14 years after that before these new high-mpg vehicles completely replaced the nation’s fleet of motor vehicles. That would mean that any legislation for improved fuel efficiency, if it passed today, could not fulfill its potential to reduce the nation’s fuel requirements until at least 2035