Congress might lower speed limit to save gas

Just as it did in 1974 in response to the Arab oil embargo, Congress might lower the speed limit on Interstate highways as a way to save gas. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., has asked the Energy Department to determine what the optimal speed is for fuel efficiency and says Congress might consider returning to a 55 mph limit. It’s a message retired Columbia businessman Samuel Tenenbaum has been preaching for the last three years as a way to save money and improve national security.

Tenenbaum traded in his gas-guzzling SUV three years ago for a Chevy HHR that he says gets more than 30 miles per gallon. He says part of that good mileage is because he doesn’t drive faster than 60. He cites a study done by Chevron Oil that found if Americans drove at 55 mph, it would save 22 billion gallons of gas a year.

“At the current price of $4 a gallon, that’s $88 billion dollars we could keep in our pockets. That money that we’re spending today is funding the Taliban, Al Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas. So, from a patriotic point of view, you would think that we would rise up. From our own pocketbooks, we should be rising up,“ Tenenbaum says.

Critics complain that driving so much slower takes more of their time, which is also valuable to them. But Tenenbaum says driving 60 instead of 70 adds only 7 minutes to a one-hour drive. And the savings are enough to get any driver’s attention.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, fuel efficiency drops rapidly above 60 mph. Based on that, Sen. Warner says every 5 mph over 60 costs drivers “essentially an additional 30 cents per gallon in fuel costs.“ That means driving 70 mph instead of 60 mph costs an extra 60 cents a gallon.

The lower speed limit would also save lives. Phil Riley, director of the South Carolina Office of Highway Safety, says a lot of drivers are already driving slower to save gas, and they’re also driving less. “Four months ago, we had an increase of probably 30 or 35 fatalities statewide,“ compared to the same time last year. “Right now, we’re at 73 below last year at this time. We’re at 485 fatalities, which is a 13 percent decrease from last year. So lowering the speed limit would save lives and we’re already seeing that,“ Riley says.

Sen. Warner says the reduction to a 55 mph speed limit in the 70s avoided up to 4,000 traffic deaths a year nationwide.

But Tenenbaum says there’s no reason for drivers to wait to see if Congress lowers the speed limit. You can start driving slower on your own to save gas. “There are multiple facets here that we’ll have to employ for America to become energy secure. That’s the term—we need energy security. And the first thing of what we—you and I and everybody—can do today is to drive 55,“ he says.