Best Short Term Energy Plan? Harness the Natural Gas Spewed by Republicans

By Lee Russ

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 at 11:47 AM

So Obama has the audacity to point out that under-inflated tires can save as much oil--now--as we might obtain from the GOPs new drilling proposals--years from now. Well, it doesn't take the GOP (Geniuses on Parade) long to think, "Eureka! This could be Obama's Dukakis in a tank moment. Assemble the ridicule brigades! Call up the derision squad and arm them with extra irony and exclamation points!!!!!!!" But.....

According to the web site Pump 'Em Up!:

In 1995 the US Energy Department said that under-inflated tires waste an estimated 4 million gallons of gas daily in America.

Over 365 days, that's 1,460,000,000 (1.46 billion) gallons a year. The US Department of Energy's own web site, fueleconomy.gov , pronounces the following:

• Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.4 percent for every 1 psi drop in pressure of all four tires, or, for the average car, increases gas mileage about 3.3%
• Keeping tires properly inflated produces an equivalent gasoline savings of about 12 cents a gallon (based on a price of $3.96 per gallon)
• Fixing a car that is noticeably out of tune or has failed an emissions test can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4 percent;
• Fixing a serious maintenance problem, such as a faulty oxygen sensor, can improve your mileage by as much as 40 percent.
• Replacing a clogged air filter can improve your car's gas mileage by as much as 10 percent

According to Sam Stein over at Huffington Post::

On his website, GOP Congressman Mike Rogers encourages visitors to improve their gas mileage and fuel costs by making sure that that the tires on their cars are fully inflated. It is a rational plan, he freely admits, and an effective way to help constituents save a few bucks.

"There are certain things that we as individuals can do to try and lower our costs," Rogers said on Monday. "And inflating your tires is a good thing."

So exactly how honest and believable can the following GOP comments really be?

1. Newt Gingrich:

He suggested if we all inflated our tires, that we would solve the problem. Think about it. You ought to take that clip. I think that clip is far more devastating than today because it’s loony toons.

2. Rush Limbaugh

...this is laughable of course, but it’s stupid! It is stupid!...This is ridiculous. This is a presidential candidate and he's talking about keeping your tires inflated and getting regular tune-ups and that would save as much oil as drilling would produce.

Obama's statement is quite likely true, and is certainly neither stupid nor loony tunes. Same cannot be said for Gingrich and Limppaw who are--surprise!!!!-paid propagandists whose job is to cast all possible aspersions on the opposing party and its candidate.

McCain initially did not join the gaggle of ridiculers, but did misrepresent the point Obama was making. McCain's response was simply that the savings from tire inflation and the like will not break our "dependence on foreign oil." Of course not, and Obama didn't say it would. He said the tire inflation would save an amount of oil equal to what the new drilling proposals would produce.

Now, however, lured by promises of making Obama into Dukakis, McCain's campaign has belly-flopped into the river of ridicule, with Mark Salter, a McCain advisor, passing out tire pressure gauges to the press corps, with each gauge marked "Obama'sEbergyy Plan."

It's a cheap stunt, by morally cheap people, hoping like hell that they can use distortion and ridicule to conceal the gaping holes in their own candidate's policies and plans. Policies and plans which have, in plain sight of all, brought us to this very point of economic and political collapse.

Good thing McCain is a different kind of politician. And the GOP, of course, is "the party of ideas." Did I just see lighrning?