Helping To Reduce Energy Imports

To the Editor:

Kudos to Ms Crevier for purchasing a fuel-efficient vehicle that uses less than half the fuel of the typical new vehicle purchased today. Her purchase not only helps the environment, it also helps to reduce our oil import bill (our national “skeleton in the closet”) — a bill that costs one-third of a trillion dollars annually!

Our energy imports are making us increasingly vulnerable to blackmail by increasingly unfriendly governments who control most of the world energy resources. It also greatly exacerbates an out of control national balance of payments deficit that we can no longer afford. I am a retired economist and planner for the South American division of an international corporation. I have watched the devastating effect of excessive oil payments on the economies of several countries, including Brazil, which was almost bankrupted by oil payments and then beat the problem with its remarkable domestic energy initiative — the “Alcohol” program. That experience and the 1974 and 1979 oil crises taught me to always have fuel-efficient vehicles in the family fleet, particularly ones that were a strategic asset by being able to burn a fuel other than gasoline or diesel, if necessary.

Diesels have that ability; if necessary, they can run on JetA, kerosene, unhydrogenated soy cooking oil (so I have been told), and in particular, home heating oil (just be sure to pay your road fuel taxes, in advance). Each of us now really needs to consider fuel mileage carefully in making a vehicle purchase decision. In addition to the Prius, there are other good fuel-efficient new vehicle choices, including the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versus, Honda Fit, the Scion cars, Ford Focus and the Ford small SUV Hybrid, and others. These all, however, only operate on gasoline. The VW TDI models get very high mileage and have the strategic advantages of a diesel noted above. My son-in-law currently owns a VW TDI. It routinely gets 45 mpg in local mileage around here and 51 mpg on interstate road trips. I have previously owned two VW D models getting similar mileage. General Motors should be commended for its Flex-Fuel technology that allows operating on any mix of gasoline and alcohol (developed by GM do Brasil). However, GM needs to put this technology in all its vehicles, including its small cars, to really make a valuable technology available to all motorists.

Our vulnerability to another oil shut-off and more disastrous oil price increases should encourage us all to drive fuel-efficient vehicles (we do) reinsulate our homes (we have), and encourage domestic energy production of all types.

Again, kudos to Ms Crevier.

Richard Taylor

11 Leopard Drive, Sandy Hook                                        July 30, 2007