Via Instapundit:
Some lawmakers in Congress have certainly considered the consequences of your driving habits. And they want you to slow down.
Record-high gas prices have triggered talk that it may be time to lower the speed limit on federal highways to 55 or 60 mph.
"I think that's a great way to save fuel," said U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, N.C. "I think it would be the right thing to do."
U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., raised the possibility of reducing the speed limit to 55 or 60 mph early last month. He asked Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman to study whether a lower speed limit would reduce gas prices at the pump and report back on how much fuel it would save.
Who the heck needs a taxpayer funded study when anyone with a computer and a little bit of math skills (does the average congress person have those skills? I know economic skills are no prerequisite for a career in politics, although it helps (but seems to be rarely used)). If you've got those two things, then all you need is to visit Ironman at Political Calculations and his tool to help you decide what speed to drive. Here's another one to help you calculate how much your commute to work costs you. Should you move closer to your job to save gas?
Addendum: Oh, and on that 1974 Congressional study mentioned in the article:
A report by the Congressional Research Service concluded that the 55 mph speed limit enacted in 1974 resulted in reduced consumption of 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day, roughly a 2 percent reduction in the nation's highway fuel consumption.
But the demand for gasoline is downward sloping, and it is more elastic over the long run acompared to the short run. So a fair question to ask on those numbers is this: is 167,000 barrels saved gross or net of what the nation would have saved in the absence of the reduced speed limit? Moreover, is the value of the nation's time factored in? I'll bet dollars to donuts that the answer to both questions is "nyet."