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Bundling trips together so that everything you might need to do in one general locality can be done during a single trip instead of multiple trips - this can save you a lot of petrol as well as time!

Read an article in a recent Readers Digest Magazine on "Hypermilers." Hypermilers are people who come up with techniques to squeeze every mile out of a gallon of gas. Some get over 80 miles to a gallon out of standard Honda Accords, more than 100 out of hybrids. One technique I'm using is shifting to neutral on hills and coasting. I have increased my average mileage from 27 to 43 in a 1995 Honda Accord 4-banger. Also, change your oil! My mileage goes from 27 to 31 after an oil changer for about two months. I just changed it last weekend and 8 gallons of gas lasted me 8 full days, and I average over 40 miles a day commuting and shopping. It helps that I live in the mountains, and can coast more than halfway each way! I coast all the downhills and my inertia from that usually pushes me one half to one quarter of the way up the next hill!

I try not to use the car at least one day per week. I work at home so this makes it easier. I also walk and bicycle more. I'm saving money and getting more exercise which is the best of both worlds. Most Americans simply don't think about how much clout we have as consumers if we act in unison. I believe that we can cut consumption enought that fuel prices would drop. Once they do, we need to keep conserving. I suspect that quite a few of those petro dollars we send over to the Middle East are finding their way into the bank accounts of terrorists. They need to be defunded in a hurry.

One idea that I have seen circulating, and credit is given to Phillip Hollsworth for offering it, is to avoid purchasing gas form the two biggest companies, Exxon and Mobil(and from what i understand are now one). the theory behind this is that they will have to reduce their prices to stay in business and other companies will follow suit, causing companies to go out of business and eventually having one company that is willing to charge what the people want. We've been controlled by the market and perhaps it's time to stick to the man. I'm no economist but this seemed like a very interesting concept...maybe a discussion starter too?

EVERYONE NEED TO READ DAN'S ENERGY PLAN (N&O 5/10/08) PAGE 2B. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY I HAVEN'T READ THIS IN PRINT BEFORE NOW. SLOWING DOWN TO SAVE GAS IS THE ONLY SMART WAY. IT WORKED IN THE 70'S AND WE HAD LONG GAS LINES TO BOOT BUT NOW THAT GAS IS PLENTIFUL, JUST EXPENSIVE, WHY NOT TRY GOING 60 INSTEAD OF 80? PEOPLE ARE IN SUCH A HURRY AND THOSE ARE THE BIGGEST COMPLAINERS OF THE PRICE OF GAS.
THANK YOU,DAN,FOR PUTTING IT ON PAPER.

i'm voting for a president that doesn't have his family's history drenched in oil and doesn't have a vice president who helps put the country into a war to benefit his former company.

it will work...

I have a big Chrysler LHS 1996 with a 3.5 L, I recently changed my oil to Synthetic. I drove 200 miles RT on the highway for a business meeting and my MPG improved from 27MPG Highway to 29.4MPG, almost a 10% increase by using Synthetic Oil. I have 2 other cars that have seen similar results. On an SUV I have, it was around a 5 % increase or 1 mile per gallon and on another Chrysler that my wife drives around 10% improvement as well. I normally drive highway speeds no faster then 67 mph and use cruise control when I can as well.