How can gasoline usage be reduced?

How can gasoline usage be reduced?
Alt-fuels part of USA's plan for a 'gas diet'

Americans consume 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year. That will grow to 161 billion gallons by 2017 without changes in policy, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

- The White House wants the country to use 35 billion gallons of ethanol and other alternative fuels by 2017, seven times last year's domestic production of ethanol.

- Increasing fuel efficiency by 4 percent a year could save 8.5 billion gallons of gasoline a year by 2017, according to a White House proposal. That, plus alternative fuels, could reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent.

- Modifying tire treads could increase fuel economy by up to 2 percent and save 1 billion to 2 billion gallons of gasoline a year, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

- Hydrogen-fueled cars are seen as a future means of reducing gas consumption. Hybrids help, but they still need liquid fuels. Electric cars have limited range because engineers have yet to perfect the necessary batteries, says David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Increasing production of ethanol and other renewable fuels will hold down the price of oil, Cole said. "Just look at the value over one year of $1 less per cost of barrel of petroleum. It's huge," he said.


According to an article in the April 2007 issue of Popular Science, the major importer of electric vehicles in the United States, ZAP (Zero Air Pollution), out of Santa Rosa, CA, has partnered with Lotus Engineering and will produce an all electric SUV vehicle, called the ZAP-X, capable of a 350 mile range - $3.50 worth of electricity to charge it (fast-charging computer-controlled lithium batteries charge in just 10 minutes) making it inexpensive to operate - a penny a mile, compared with approximately 20 cents/mile to operate a gas-fueled SUV. This particular vehicle will come with a hefty price tag ($60,000) but it's due to a number of unnecessary perks, like going 155 mph and boasting a staggering 644 horsepower!! ZAP and Lotus are planning an entire line of these "green-power" vehicles, so there should be a model that will be affordable to purchase and affordable to operate.

Use E-85 fuel. For those that don't know E-85 uses only 15% gasoline and 85% ethanol. Yes E-85 is not quite an efficient as gas, but taking that into consideration, every vehicle that switched to E-85 would use about 80% less gas.

It is a renewable fuel and can be produced in mass quantity in the good oil' USA.

Also since America buys a lot of gas from Middle East countries that support terrorism, using E-85 would help reduce the money that goes to terrorists.

An inventor Rudolph Gunnerman created a gasoline fuel alternative that would reduce gasoline consumption in half, by 70 billion gallons a year with today's consumption rates.

Gunnerman's A-21 aqueous naphtha fuel was featured in major newspapers in 1996, yet if you asked any government official, they would probably say they never heard of it.

A-21 would also save consumers billions of dollars a year as A-21 would cost less than half of what today's gasoline formulations cost to produce.