I recently took action to tell Congress it is time to increase the miles per gallon standards for cars.  According to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, better gas mileage for our cars is arguably the best way to shrink the  growing demand for oil and relieve pressure on gasoline prices.

This year families will pay over $1000 extra annually for gasoline compared to the late 1990s.  Congress can increase the miles per gallon standards for vehicles, so a tank of gas will get us farther down the road.

Just go to http://cu.convio.net/gas07 and take action.

Thank you!

But...then it will cost more than that to buy a new car, cause they'll add the development cost to the cars...so, people buying the new cars that get the better mileage will still be paying out the nose!
Ya just cain't win!

I agree tho, that something needs to be done to decrease the American market's dependence on oil...and decrease the price at the pump...

Here is what bothers me about the mileage. New research does NOT need to be done to improve mileage! Think of this: i am currently driving a '95 dodge neon (stick shift, admittedly), and my combined mileage, if i keep it at 65, is 38mpg. I’m serious. Now, consider the Volkswagen Rabbit diesel of the late '80's: 45+mpg. The Chevy Sprint/Geo Metro 3cyl, (stick again): 50+ mpg on highways. My favorite is the next pickup i am looking to buy (next couple of years): the VW Diesel: 48 mpg freeways.

Think its only older cars? What about the new VW bugs, TDI, 50+ freeway mileage. I don’t understand why have to go to the new hybrid technology to get high freeway mileage. For stop and go, i can agree, hybrid is excellent for those who are stuck in stop and go traffic jams. If i were, i would own one. But, being the cheapskate i am, i arranged my life so i drive opposing traffic, so i could buy a $700 neon instead

If a 2007 Corvette with a V8 500+ HP engine can get 28 Highway...many other cars should be getting at least that!

Congress needs to do lots of things.

Having worked on this and other national energy issues 33 years ago, I can speak to it with some degree of knowledge—and a whole LOT of frustration and irritation with both political parties, for largely ducking their responsibility to the nation by consistently refusing to address this critical national security matter.

The fact is, we haven’t built enough refineries to keep pace with growing demand for gasoline and other petroleum products. Primarily because of the NIMBY mentality around the country. So we’re chronically short of enough refining capacity. When refineries have to shut down periodically for servicing, supplies of some petroleum products can run relatively low, triggering price rises. It’s just basic economics. On top of that, we’re now in growing competition for global oil supplies with fast-expanding economies like China and India. That puts added pressure on prices.

We’ve refused to aggressively pursue alternative forms of energy, from solar to geothermal to wind to coal gasification, oil shale and several more. We’ve also merrily gone about adding millions upon millions of new gasoline-powered vehicles to our roads—so despite significantly increased fuel economy figures since the original two energy crises, we’re still burning more gasoline than we did then. And the percentage of oil that we import has gone up as a direct result, thereby putting us in the very vulnerable predicament that we’re now facing.

Again. For the third time in as many decades.

You’d think we would have learned something by now, wouldn’t you?

Yes, higher mileage standards are a good idea. Just as they were thirty years ago. But if we keep on increasing the total number of cars and trucks on the road, the impact of those higher standards will be blunted—just as they have been over the last three decades.

Let’s face it. As a nation, we’re just not serious about confronting this problem. So we resort—aided by our cowardly political leaders—to ‘feel good’, partial answers. We want to put Band-Aids on a cancer that’s eating away relentlessly at our basic national security.

Want to really do some good? Tell Congress that they should get serious about promoting alternative forms of energy. They keep dicking around with the few laws they do pass, so that an important industry like solar photovoltaic is hampered by uncertainty. (These rooftop panels can power your entire household’s energy needs on many days, and are—right now, around the country—allowing homeowners the great feeling of owing NO money to their local electrical utility!)

Tell Congress and your state legislature that they need to find ways to help speed the construction of new refineries; since, because of their inaction over many years, we’re going to remain heavily dependent upon petroleum (especially imported petroleum) for many, many years to come. Demand that they fund more light rail systems around the nation. Launch a ‘Manhattan Project’-style research effort to unlock the vast resources of oil shale that we have in North America (we’ve got more oil in this form, right here, than the entire Middle East has in crude oil reserves). I could go on and on.

The simple, hard truth is: there is no one solution to the enormous energy challenges we face. Instead, there are many vital steps that we, as a nation, desperately need to take. But our national mindset these days—unlike some previous American generations—is to duck the tough questions, and the diverse range of answers that they demand—and resort to simplistic, politically-easy-to-swallow formulas.

We’ve had three clear, direct, harsh and even bloody warnings over the last thirty years. And we’ve failed, year in and year out, to do much of any real significance about them.

Think we’re going to do much better in the next thirty?

Have you heard of the new cars being developed that run basically on AIR, thats right Compressed Air, they soon will be on sale round the world but not in th US  They are called MDICAT's cilrah2007-07-03 12:38:46

I'm sure I don't think like most people when it come to this type of stuff, but if a poor oil company only makes 9.5 BILLION in profit for a quarter, you really have to feel sorry for them.
Cut gas in half and they would only make 4.25 Billion in profits....the poor companys.
Sure I know we need to find other types of energy, but that doesn't mean they have to take us to the cleaners.
I know I don't know what I'm talking about...but to me it's a rip off.