Slow to Save: Return to a 55 MPH Speed Limit?

July 4, 2008 – Vol.13 No.15

SLOW TO SAVE:
RETURN TO A 55 MPH SPEED LIMIT?

Finally, someone in Congress is considering a bold step to cut the cost of gas. Senator John Warner (R) of Virginia is suggesting that Congress might consider bringing back a national speed limit.

Warner has sent a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel Bodman asking the department to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current automotive technology. Warner also wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.

In 1974Congress set a national speed limit of 55 mph because of shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil was $17 a barrel and gasoline was $1.10 a gallon.

The Senator noted in his letter that studies had shown that the 55 mph speed limit saved 167,000 barrels of oil a day, or 2 percent of the country's highway fuel consumption. Up to 4,000 traffic deaths a year were avoided as well, with the lower maximum speed.

"Given the significant increase in the number of vehicles on America's highway system from 1974 to 2008, one could assume that the amount of fuel that could be conserved today is far greater," Warner wrote Bodman according to the Associated Press.

Warner also referred to the DOE Website that says that fuel efficiency decreases rapidly when traveling faster than 60 mph. Every additional 5 mph over that threshold is estimated to cost motorists "essentially an additional 30 cents per gallon in fuel costs." Even if the return to a national speed limit didn’t bring down prices at the pump right away it would reduce consumer’s expenditures on fuel. The savings would be immediate.

Warner asked the Department to determine at what speed vehicles would be most fuel efficient, how much fuel savings would be achieved, and whether it would be reasonable to assume there would be a reduction in prices at the pump if the speed limit were lowered.

A DOE spokeswoman said the department will review Warner's letter but recited the Bush Administration's company line saying, "If Congress is serious about addressing gasoline prices, they must take action on expanding domestic oil and natural gas production."

The spokeswoman, apparently unaware of the technical details of oil and natural gas, didn’t mention that new oil production would take years to develop and that natural gas supplies had nothing to do with the cost of gasoline. Nor did she mention how long DOE would take to respond to Warner’s letter: Hours, days, weeks or months? Other than the addition of hybrid technology, little has changed in automotive technology since 1995 when the national speed limit was rescinded. DOE could, if it wanted to, respond to Warner in a matter of hours using old data.

If Warner’s effort moves forward to legislation it’s hard to determine how the rest of Congress and the president will react. After 9/11 Bush didn’t ask Americans to make sacrifices for the sake of the country; instead he asked them to go shopping. As for Congress, will they ask Americans to suffer the frustration of driving slowly or continue to suffer the pain at the pump which is adding to America’s woes?

Links:

Senator John Warner
http://warner.senate.gov/public

--- Forget Washington: Act Locally.

--- Better Than Playing Gasoline Politics: A Crash Program In Fuel Efficiency.

--- Beating The High Cost Of Gas.