An opinion by Stan Raines

The politicians seem to have noticed, perhaps three or four years late as usual, that there’s a problem with fuel prices: They are going up and there seems to be no end in sight. People have been grappling with it for a while, though, not only at the gas station, but the grocery store and everywhere else they purchase goods that are delivered by fueled vehicles—that is, everywhere.

What are the politicians’ solutions? Bribery. Tax givebacks including the currently executing income tax rebates and the proposals of John McCain and Hillary Clinton to suspend federal taxes on fuels for the summer holidays. How nice. How pathetic.

If these politicians really wanted to do something to help the situation, they would sponsor the re-introduction of fifty-five mile an hour speed limits. The savings are immediate. Fuel efficiency goes down remarkably when speeds exceed sixty miles an hour and keeping speeds at fifty-five improves miles per gallon anywhere from five to twenty-five percent, depending on the vehicles involved and the speeds being compared.

On a lark a couple of summers ago, Mrs. Raines and I drove the first leg of a journey home from New Castle, Indiana on what have become back roads, Indiana 3 south from New Castle to North Vernon and then west on US 50 to Salem, Illinois where we picked up our usual route on Interstate 57. We enjoyed the scenery tremendously, as US 50 goes through some beautifully wooded hills and valleys, but, more importantly for this discussion, our fuel consumption was around twenty-six miles to the gallon as opposed to the twenty and twenty-one miles-per-gallon we got on the Interstates. The fuel savings was somewhere between eighteen and thirty percent.

Apply the math to annual consumption for the country. Even if the average works out to be only a five percent savings–and I doubt it would be so low–that’s a significant number.

And which would do more for us in the long run? Being bought off by the politicians once again or taking positive action on a problem that we all face?