Republicans Belittling Obama’s Decent, if Overstated, Energy Efficiency Idea

Crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel, capping the biggest one-month decline since December 2004, as a slowing U.S. economy caused fuel consumption to weaken to the lowest in three years.
Conservation works.

It’s not the idea that saving some gas is silly, it’s what Obama actually said according to you…
“Making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups. You could actually save just as much.”
800,000 barrels of oil a day is a lot less than you’d get from ANWR, oil shale and off shore drilling.
The silly part is Obama wildly overstating the benefits of his suggestion.

The dems keep saying that drilling now wouldn’t get any results for 10 years.
Well, that’s what they said 10 years ago when the GOP tried to get more offshore drilling through and Bill Clinton vetoed it.
In other words they blocked it 10 years ago and if they hadn’t we would be drowning in the oil right now.
Gee, thanks dems.

Yes…you mealy mouthed, big name politicians..conservation works. So, mandate fuel efficiency to Detroit and reduce that national speed limit.
And, while you’re at it save the fuel and associated money wasted in parading around the country making campaign promises that won’t be kept.
When you multiply the savings by all the politicians that will be wasting oil and resources from now until November 4, we could probably reduce consumption and the national debt by a signficant amount.
We have seen all the political commercials we need to see on our televisions for the last year or so, too.
Get that garbage off the airwaves and use the money to pay down the spiraling national debt that Congress authorizes to buy votes each year.
McCain, Obama, Schwarzenegger, Crist, all of you…conservation starts at home. Quit talking and set a good example instead of saying one thing and doing another.
Kick’em all out, and start over…

Inflate our tires (put on a sweater — oops that was Carter)… ask the rest of the world’s permission for what we eat, drive and set our thermostats on, learn Spanish…..
Gee, Obama’s just chock full of ideas. He’s full of “change” alright. Not the kind of change I want, thank you very much.

M,
You’re kidding right? Democrats jumped all over the 100 years stuff. And he didn’t mean it at all the way dems portray it.
Nice try but you lose.

I have heard similar suggestions given on my local TV news broadcasts as helpful hints,with their info comimg from some “experts” The important thing is that Senator Obama, was just saying that we, who have the sense that we get what we want, may need to wake up smell the “oil” and look at what we can do in a short term, while long term solutions are found.
What if gas prices never go down? And maybe we should Be Thankful we are not paying the prices that some in Europe are paying.

Another thing for the political hacks…
Why aren’t politicians working at 100% to get wind farms, solar arrays, geothermal systems, conversion of our vehicles to natural gas (yes, we have plenty right here…and it burns cleaner)up and running right now?
According to statistics, we could reduce the amount of oil imported into the United States by 20% in five years by building wind farms for generation of electricity.
The United States is “the Saudi Arabia of wind power,” and, yet, we hear nothing specific about moving in this direction from Obama or McCain (note the word, specific).
The only one with a real, workable plan is an oil man named T. Boone Pickens. The man is 80 years old, but he has a better energy plan than either presidential candidate.
And, I don’t care what you think about Pickens. At least he HAS a plan which is better than Obama or McCain who don’t have a clue…

@Jo: “Not the kind of change I want, thank you very much.”
You can set your thermostat as high as you want when wearing your lingerie in winter, but stop whining about high gas prices. It’s a free market, you wanted it that way. Americans don’t have the exclusive rights to world oil.

There’s nothing wrong about being conservative with our natural resources. What some people don’t want to hear, or are too ignorant to pay attention, this planet DOES NOT have an infinite quantity of fossil fuels; it no longer has an infinite quantity of other resources either. We are a wasteful society, many Americans, especially, have a sense of entitlement — turn every light & appliance in the house on, turn the thermostat way up, or way down, depending on the season, and to hell with everyone else.

Your “experts are full of beans. If you make the assumption that every car on the road has under inflated tires and needs a tune-up, the numbers could be fairly close. If you assume that Obama was only talking about a few of the sources we aren’t currently using, your numbers could be close. However, there is no reason to believe either of those two suppositions. Obama was off by a country mile, and deserves a bit of derision.

Anyone who thinks that our energy issues are going to be solved through one approach is simply delusional. It will require a national effort involving a combination of approaches and a good deal of time. Gas is now $4.30 per gallon…if inflating your tires helps lower your gas use…do it.
This derision is coming from the same bunch that wanted the federal gas holiday which would have saved people pennies and taken money and jobs away from badly needed infrastructure projects. Give me a break.

“…if everybody was just inflating their tires…”
Such a bold, generic statement shows very poor judgment by Sen. Obama. Over inflated tires can be hazardous. Over inflated tires will ride on just the center of the tread. This means less grip on the road which can result in steering and stopping problems. Not to mention it will result in more wear on the tires.
Sen. Obama should have told the American people to maintain the air pressure that is recommended within the manufacturer’s manual.

“1.25 million barrels a day from drilling off shore”??? What prevents us from drilling 2,3 or 10 times that amount per day? Would Obama’s comment be any less relevant if the comparison was 800,000 barrels a day vs. 12.5 million?

Here he goes again! Of course, all of us little folks will hear his words and be enlightened (as we were with his speech on race, responsibilities of the black father)! OMG, Obama just solved the energy crisis – forget about solar, wind, nuclear, and the other clean fuels, and don’t worry about all the other uses for oil! Talk about an inflated ego, and a lot of hot air! Maybe we should harness him – could save 8,000 barrels a day! LOL!

I should add, among other things, that the assumption made in the previous post didn’t even try to account for things such as…
What fraction of miles driven are from cars, trucks, etc.? How much gasoline do each class of vehicle consume? Are they uniformly affected by bad air filters, underinflated tires, etc?
Basically, you need to get a real estimate from a person who did real research. This kind of making stuff up gives journalism a bad name. And I say that as someone who opposes offshore drilling and thinks conservation is the best way to go.

Let’s see –
The democratic congress continues to suppress additional energy sources so the law of supply and demand kicks in and prices rise. Consumption falls.
Now, reduced consumption means less taxation so that same congress want to raise the gasoline tax by 10 to 50 cents per gallon.
Which raises prices and the problems spins out of control.
Anybody see a fallacy in the argument posed by the ruling party in DC
?

why is the GOP really going after offshore drilling the oil companies have leases for millions of acres to do their exploring. they can drill all they want but they wont because it will drive the price down OFFSHORE drilling is just a little game thats being played Oh and by the way check with your manufacturers manual

Obama is so full of hot gas, he can inflate all tires properly by himself.
Obama for Secretary of Inflation!

Inflating your tires does improve your gas mileage a bit, and it improves handling. That said, Hannity is a republican stooge, that wouldn’t give a dem credit even if that dem had the most brilliant idea since sliced bread. The same is true for liberal talk show hosts preaching spin on the other side.

What’s gotten lost in the discussion of offshore drilling is that the oil produced will not be U.S. property. Cenk Uygur of Young Turks pointed this out:
“The oil that comes from that drilling will not be United States property (Republicans aren’t suggesting we nationalize the oil companies, are they?). It will be the property of whichever oil company got the rights to that contract. They can then sell it to whoever they like — and they will. They will sell it on the world market, so the Chinese will have just as much access to the oil that comes out of the coast of Florida as we will.” (July 23, 2008)

JA- ” . .. but supplement it with proven ways to help our energy problem. Those include nuclear and offshore drilling. Both of which Obama opposes.”
But Obama is actually nuclear energy friendly. He’s received significant contributions from the nuclear industry along with having a pretty cozy relationship with Exelon, which has a nuclear plant in Illinois. There are some of us who wish he were greener, not in experience, of course, but with environmental issues.

NEW BOOK OUT ON OBAMA….THE TRUTH ABOUT HIM…GOOD READING!!

marylou
we cannot be independant with oil alone we have long passed that point—-alternate fuels and energy are a must.
mccain has had 30 years to do something about it—–when he spouts ofshore drilling i know exactly who he is pandering to—BIG OIL and that is disturbing

The Republicans have become such idiots, they know that their days are numbered and they are using everything to throw at the democrats even the kitchen sink. I am really disappointed that I am a republican. I am divorcing myself from the republican party.

i dont consider myself a genius by any means–but if i know the answers. WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR GOVERNMENT—-like him or not obama may be the best chance we have as mccain will be nothing more than a continuance of present leadership–he has voted with bush 95% of the votes–that tells you something. ofshore drilling will not solve any of our problems -just make billions more for big oil as oil is sold on the world market and is controlled by big oil and opec. you are in for the fight of your lives-to get alternates up and running–too much corruption.

+big oil big business china and nafta along with a unjustified war is bankrupting our country and most on here flap their mouth about some of the most silly things–and all the time our country is going down the drain—i dont know if anyone can fix the mess the last 8 years have gotten us into–but you all must insist that somerthing be done and nothing less–dont be sidetracted by kiddy nonsence.
have to go
bye

Rodney, McCain doesn’t say that drilling is enough – but he is willing to include it as PART OF the solution and that’s a good thing.
Nice twist trying to reduce McCain’s 25 years of senatorial experience as he personally controlling every piece of legislation passed or failed. I guess that’s all you’ve got with Obama’s piece-of-fluff resume and record of experience!
McCain – Right for America!

I wish somebody would investigate how Exxon got their huge profits. To me if they were paying increased costs to extract and acquire oil, their profits would be alot smaller.
I believe that they are relatively selling cheap to produce US oil on the world market to foreign countries at the expense of our economic future. We are not wisely managing our oil resources. We should charge more for oil exploration leases and share in profits from runs in oil prices.
I repeat that I believe Exxon makes its money by taking US produced oil and selling it to foreign countries.

How many people already have the proper tire inflation?
Does Obama really believe that everyone in the US is driving around on poorly inflated tires?
Obama seems to believe that he invents these just because he says them in a speech. Plenty of people are already doing things to conserve because gas prices are very high.
He is out of touch with practical things. Does Obama even drive himself anywhere? Or does he just ride in the limo? Are his limo tires properly inflated? Has he checked?
This situation is like when he said all Americans should learn Spanish. But he doesn’t speak Spanish.

Jake, you’re wrong to claim that “[n]o one said the energy problem could be solved by this tire issue….”
Obama foolishly said it! As you quote him:
“We could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups.”
The (un)Democratic Party, by foisting this idiotic, uniformed, gaffe-machine of a candidate on us, is letting the right-wing have a field day on the oil issue.
Just when public opinion was turning in favor of seriously addressing energy and climate change issues, the Dean/Brazile/Pelosi/Reid bolsheviks endanger everything with their risky gambit of selecting Barry Dunham-Soetoro.
Wake up and nominate Hillary!

The wheels are falling off the Democrats’ wagon. Watch your news tonight for the ruckus in the house today over the Dems blocking the energy vote. The Dems will lose big in November on this issue. Let’s all go inflate our tires now LOL!! They’ve really lined up behind a loser, and sinking faster by the minute.

The 800,000 barrels per day is an estimate from Frank Verrastro, the link at the beginning of this article will let you review his methods which include proper tire inflation AND tuning up cars.
As to properly inflated tires:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 27% of cars have underinflated tires, defined by NHTSA as 8 or more psi below the recommended inflation level.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency underinflated tires reduce miles per gallon (MPG) .4% per 1 psi drop in pressure.
27% of cars would see an IMMEDIATE MPG increase of 3.2%, across the nation, a .864% reduction in gasoline consumption, for total savings of 3.28 million gallons of gasoline PER DAY by simply properly inflating the tires.
After refining, a barrel (42 gallons) of oil yields 19.6 gallons of gasoline.
It takes 172,800 barrels of oil to generate 3.28 millions gallons of gasoline.

Hey Jon, you should ask the same question of Crist and Arnold, they mentioned the benefits of proper tire inflation first.

1) Are the oil companies really interested in increasing supply and thereby lowering prices? The “drill now” crowd has made the assumption that oil companies will immediately drill and put that on the market. I find that to be a rather idealistic assumption.
2) If 800,000 barrels per day is accurate that is almost 6 trillion in the 20 years it will take to get the first oil out of the ocean.

Republicans for Obama??? As far as I’m concerned these people never were Republicans, and obviously aren’t Republicans now. At best, they are simply weak politicians with little conviction. Calling themselves
Republicans for Obama is just a transparent political P.R. ploy to make it look like even Republicans are switching over to Obama. However, as we get closer to November, Obama is sinking in the polls, and McCain is rising. And, we still don’t know how many of the 18 million Clinton supporters are switching over to McCain. And we still don’t know how many people who said they’d vote for Obama, will actually vote for McCain, in the privacy of the voting booth. Obama has a track record with 9 days of foreign policy, and 16 months in government, and with very little to show for it. McCain has 25 years in the military … 20 years in government … tons of foreign policy experience … proven commitment to this country, as a war hero who paid dearly. If you look at the facts, instead of Obama’s smoke and mirrors, it’s obvious that Senator John McCain should be our next President.