The Truth About Tire Pressure

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It's true that any individual motorist might be wasting a lot of fuel because of improper auto maintenance. Driving with a badly clogged air filter, for example, can cut mileage by as much as 10 percent, according to the government's Web site FuelEconomy.gov. And correcting a "serious" maintenance problem such as a faulty oxygen sensor can save as much as 40 percent in fuel, according to the site. It says the average fuel savings from tuning up a car that is "noticeably out of tune or has failed an emissions test" is 4 percent.

But we've found no data on how many motorists are operating cars that are "noticeably out of tune" or have serious maintenance problems or clogged air filters, so it's not possible for us to estimate from those figures how many gallons of fuel could be saved each year if all such problems were corrected. But we doubt very much that the possible savings is anything close to what could be achieved through proper tire pressure. The reason is that modern autos seldom, if ever, need tune-ups.

In the past, regular tune-ups were needed because cars used mechanical ignition systems that relied on points, rotors and distributor caps that wore and needed frequent adjustment. Today's cars have electronic ignition systems that seldom need attention. Older cars mainly used carburetors to mix fuel, and they also tended to get out of adjustment and require frequent tweaking. Today's cars mainly rely on fuel injection. Modern autos also come with platinum-tipped spark plugs that can last 100,000 miles, and air filters that typically don't need replacement for 30,000 miles. So the old-fashioned tune-up is pretty much a thing of the past.

We tend to agree with author-mechanic Theodore Olson, who writes: "Unless your vehicle is misfiring (i.e., not running on all cylinders), your gas mileage is likely fine." We're not saying that motorists should skip factory-recommended maintenance, such as regular oil changes. That's a good way to shorten the useful life of the vehicle. We just see no evidence that much fuel would be saved even if everybody followed their owner's manual.

But for the sake of argument, even if one assumed that another 1 billion gallons of fuel could be saved each year from proper tune-ups – and again, we've seen no evidence to support that idea – the combination of tire pressure and tune-ups wouldn't equal in savings what the government expects from increased offshore production once it reaches a peak. And it would be only a small fraction of what ARI and the NPC expects.

Reprinted with permission from Factcheck.org.

Technical Notes:
ARI's report also predicts an increase of 20,000 barrels per day from opening up the Northern Aleutian Basin to offshore drilling, and the summary of the NPC's report speaks of "more than 1 million" barrels of increased production. But the Aleutian basin had already been opened by Congress and President Bush by the time the NPC paper with the ARI predictions was published. We have counted here only the 990,000 barrels per day that ARI expects from opening areas in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards, the same offshore areas covered by the EIA's estimate.

EIA's published tables show no increase in production until the year 2016, but Martin states that these are based on an assumption that the current ban will remain in place until it is set to expire in 2012. For our analysis, we assume that the ban would be lifted immediately as proposed by McCain and others.

Sources
"Underinflated Tires" U.S. Government Accountability Office: GAO-07-246R. 9 Feb 2007.

"Impacts of Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf." 2007. Energy Information Administration. 8 Aug. 2008.

OCS Oil & Gas Production. The Minerals Management Service. 8 Aug. 2008.

Phillips, David. "Cost of Offshore Drilling Rising as Fast as Oil Prices." Bnet Business Network 8 May 2008.

Tires Home. National Highway Transportation & Safety Administration. 8 Aug. 2008.

Petroleum Basic Statistics. The Energy Information Administration. 8 Aug. 2008.

Keeping Your Car In Shape. FuelEconomy.gov. 8 Aug. 2008.

Olson, Theodore "Car Maintenance - Will it Really Help Gas Mileage?" EzineArticles.com 7 Aug. 2008.

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Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 08/29/2008 10:49:13 AM

Democrats talk at the Denver convention about creating and keeping American jobs.
Ironically the building that housed the largest research and development division of Arco Oil Company in Texas was sold by British Petroleum to Perot Systems and now serves as its headquarters. Perot Systems was founded by Ross Perot who previously created EDS Electronic Data Systems and who most importantly has been credited with throwing the 1992 Presidential election to Bill Clinton by drawing off many independent voters who would have voted Republican for George Bush senior. Perot Systems derives a significant amount of its business from state and federal contracts. A building that used to house American engineers, geologists, scientists, logistics people and ordinary employees who worked for an American owned oil company that strived to fill the gas tank for the average American now houses a company that focuses on giving computer support on state and the federal government social service contracts. This is the Democratic Party version of a success story. Outsourced government work under Bill Clinton replaces a former American owned world admired jewell of the oil industry that had provided gas for the American gas tank and many good American jobs for many years. So if you need reasonably price gas for your car, contact Bill Clinton and Perot Systems and ask them to give you a gallon of gas. This is the Democratic version of a success story, outsourced government work replacing a real company that produces a real needed product for the average American household.

The second take home point from this comment is that nuclear power is a friend of the environment and does not emit green house gases.
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Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 08/29/2008 10:48:46 AM

Barack Obama complained at his acceptance speech in Denver about oil company tax breaks and praised the alleged jobs created under the administration of Bill Clinton.

The following story should shed light on Obama???s praise of the economic policies of Bill Clinton.
While camping and attending a bluegrass music festival, I took a tour of Comanche Peak Power Plant, the last nuclear power plant built in the United States. The plant is unobtrusive and is at perfect harmony with its environment. It is located near Glen Rose Texas a beautiful area that has bluegrass band festivals in the summer. It is a wonderful scenic country area and home to Dinosaur World and a state park. There are dinosaur tracks from 100 million years ago along the riverbed that can be seen in the water due to erosion and some say that the tracks are heading in the direction of New York City. The Brazos River flows through the area and the place is an environmental heaven. There used to be an old green Sinclair Oil Company dinasour statue that stood at the park. Ironically most of the stations and assets of Sinclair Oil Company was bought by Arco Oil Company. Arco Oil Company was considered the jewell of all American oil companies for having explored and developed the Alaskan North Slope and at one time owning eighty percent of our proven Alaskan oil reserves. Arco Oil Company was subsequently bought out later by foreign owned British Petroleum during the second administration of Bill Clinton. The point of this comment is twofold. The long-term hostility of the Democratic Party leadership toward United States owned energy companies has led to the sale of United States oil companies to foreign interests and that nuclear power plants can even be located next to wonderful wildlife and park areas and make good unobtrusive neighbors. Arco Oil Company with its substantial Alaskan oil reserves should have bought out British Petroleum instead of the other way around. Comanche Peak in Glen Rose the last nuclear power plant built in the United States symbolizes the death of the American owned nuclear power industry and the decline of United States owned oil companies due to the hostile business environment created by Democratic Party leadership.

Sinclair Oil Company and Arco Oil no longer exist, British Petroleum has replaced them under the second Democratic administration of Bill Clinton.
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Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 08/29/2008 10:45:45 AM

Obama and the Democrats would never consider government loan guarantees or tax breaks for a sure thing that will produce energy for the American gas tank. Democrat loan guarantees and earmarks are only reserved for off the wall improbable future technologies such as hydrogen power that offer no short term chance of solution for our energy problems. Democratic disdain for energy production by US companies is evident with the current ownership of former US energy companies. Is it any surprise that the jewell Arco Oil Company which owned 80 percent of our Alaska Oil Reserves was bought out by British Petroleum Corporation at the end of the second administration of Bill Clinton due to the hostile Democratic attitude toward energy companies. It is no accident that the largest US builder of nuclear power plants, Westinghouse Nuclear Power Construction Division was bought out by Toshiba Corporation of Japan. While 80 percent of France electricity is generated by nuclear power, only twenty percent in the US is generated due to the successful efforts of Democratic party to kill the US nuclear power industry. Significantly, nuclear power is not considered a mainstay of Democratic plans to address our energy crisis. Not a single new nuclear power plant has been built in the United States in the last thirty years. Democratic leadership want to study the problem for another thirty years. There is also a worldwide shortage and backlog of orders for oil drilling platforms and oil drilling ships but US shipyards are not building these ships. Only one percent of the world's commercial ships are built in US shipyards. Hold your breath for the Democratic outcry and push for government help to US ship builders to build oil drilling ships in the US.