Thursday, July 8

For more ideas, see here!

Prior to the disastrous BP oil spill, I grumbled and silently complained about the foolish ways we had about consuming oil. Then (what else?), disaster occurred. I suddenly realized that conserving was far more than a nice idea; more than a good talking point at city or town hall meetings; it was essential to our very way of life. And by "way of life" I do not blithely refer to the landmass of the United States; it refers to the entire earth. So here are my ideas; I expect that few of them will be wildly popular at first. The drivers will likely scream, "You're taking all of my pleasure in driving away!" To which I would reply, "Exactly". 1) When I was a little kidlet, I would read Guinness book of world records ,and read that the car which was best in fuel consumption got 40 MPG. (highway) Not bad, I foolishly thought. Silly me. 95% of the cars today get less than 40 mpg. Make it mandatory that every car sold in the USA get at least 50 mpg, and that's city driving. Of course, car dealers will wail and moan that consumers should have "freedom of choice". They have a point. So let them sell cars with worse mileage. Right after we collect the $25,000 surtax. 2)I must defer to a blogger who came up with a 20 mph citywide. I would only add one important thing: enforce the 20 mph strictly. No get out of jail free cards. Otherwise, they'll be lame suggestions. 3) [deep breath] OK, this one's gonna be really unpopular. But please hear me out. Let's put a $10 tax on gas(per gallon). It would force everyone to think two, three, four times: is this trip necessary? Well,three is good for now. Before you reject them out of hand, look at the mess we've created so far.