The Good Kind of Inflation
How the US will possibly reduce its dependence on fossil fuels is becoming an increasing national question. Lots of innovation will be needed, but it's increasingly clear there will be no magic bullet.Which makes common-sense conservation very necessary. But apparently Republicans don't want to hear it if it doesn't involve drilling.
Flip
Early this week, Barack Obama mentioned in a rally that there were some common-sense approaches Americans could take to help reduce the cost and demand of gasoline and other energy costs. These included among other things, that if everyone kept tires on their cars properly inflated, it would make a noticeable dent in the oil issue.
Of course, this was just a suggestion that Obama made on a more personal level to his supporters; he does have an ambitious policy to address the oil problem. But of course the GOP did not mention this when they tried to paint Obama as someone who is so out-of-touch that he thinks inflating air into tires will fix everything!
Michael Grunwald of "Time" put it well:
How out of touch is Barack Obama? He's so out of touch that he suggested that if all Americans inflated their tires properly and took their cars for regular tune-ups, they could save as much oil as new offshore drilling would produce. Gleeful Republicans have made this their daily talking point; Rush Limbaugh is having a field day; and the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled "Barack Obama's Energy Plan" to Washington reporters.
McCain spoke to an annual gathering of motorcyclists in Sturgis, South Dakota, and said this about Barack Obama: ""My opponent doesn't want to drill, he doesn't want nuclear power, he wants you to inflate your tires."
Clearly, the GOP thought they could get some mileage out of this line of attack, no pun intended.
But then those pesky facts got in the way again...
Flop
Can the oil crisis in the US be solved by good tires? No, of course not. Nor did Obama claim as much. As we saw, that didn't alleviate the giddiness from the Republican party, who continued with this line of attack.
So why did it end so suddenly?
The facts came out, clear and indisputable:
The best estimate available, by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is that at least a quarter of drivers are cruising around on under-inflated tires. In April, the Rubber Manufacturers Association, the Auto Club, the California Highway Patrol and Yokohama Tire Company used those statistics, along with Department of Transportation and Automobile Association of America data, to extrapolate that 2.8-billion gallons of gas are lost every year due to under-inflation of tires...
This article from PolitiFact compares those estimated gains against the gains that could be made with McCain's additional off-shore drilling.
After refining, a barrel of oil can produce up to 19.5 gallons of gasoline, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. So that’s 3.9-million more gallons of gasoline per day, or 1.4-billion [additional] gallons of gasoline per year.
And remember, an estimated 2.8-billion gallons of gas are lost annually due to under-inflated tires.
Twice the amount of gasoline could be saved per year just by filling our tires, huh? Reality sure can bite sometimes.
Bonus
John McCain has jumped on the inflation bandwagon.
Discussing the air-pressure issue during an appearance Tuesday night, McCain said he wasn't opposed to Obama's suggestion. "And could I mention that Senator Obama a couple of days ago said that we ought to all inflate our tires, and I don't disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it, but I also don't think that that's a way to become energy independent."
Apparently it's twice as effective without costing us anything or taking multiple decades. But then again, that wouldn't be very profitable for oil companies, would it?
Where are your priorities again, Senator?
