Blogs For Victory

We hear much of this, but let us actually think of the ways and means we can cut our oil consumption. We’re going to have a rule or two:

1. It can’t be something already put out by the Obama or McCain campaigns.

2. It must not require any new technology.

3. It must not require any direct government expenditure.

4. It must not add to the regulatory burden on the economy.

5. It must allow people to be in charge of their own energy consumption choices.

Herewith some of my ideas:

A: Switch from a standard 8 hours, five days a week at work to 10 hours, four days a week.

In theory, this would cut America’s collective commute – and the fuel consumed therein – by 20%; in actuality, it would be less even if it became the norm, but I’ll bet that a widespread application of this would reduce our gasoline consumption by 10%, as well as greatly cutting down auto emissions.

As for the practical terms of it – I and the Mrs have been working “four tens” for years now, and we’ve become so accustomed to it that we find it incomprehensible how anyone has any real fun with only two days a week off. Such a proposal would allow for people to have more usuable leisure time (that two hours you’re currently off each weekday are rather worthless for recreation in any real sense), more time to spend with family, more time to spend on personal activities (you think I’d blog this much if I had to put in a five day week?) and would allow for very flexible work schedules (some people, like me, will prefer Fri-Sat-Sun, but others will prefer Mon-Tue-Wed, or any combination you can think of). My preferred method of encouraging this – tax breaks for businesses which allow it.

B: Large trucks only to travel between 7pm and 7am.

Large trucks tend to clog the highways as they are slower and less nimble than automobiles – at rush hour, this tends to slow down traffic greatly, causing greater consumption of fuel for all concerned. By getting them off the road during the day we will make the commute much faster and easier (already made so, of course, by the fact that 20% less people are trying to get to downtown each day in line with Proposal A) and I believe that it can be demonstrated that keeping truck traffic to the night hours will show that average time on the road for the trucks is reduced, thus reducing the cost of shipping goods as well as the amount of fuel consumed. Preferred way to encourage – once again, tax breaks for transportation companies who will do this.

C: Encourage telecommuting.

How many millions of us spend our work day in front of a computer in a cubicle? I do and the Mrs does. The difference? She rolls out of bed, brushes her teeth, grabs a bite to eat and then goes into the home office to work. Zero fuel expenditure for her morning commute, as well as being able to sleep in later. As for me, I drive 18 miles each way to do a job I could just as well do at my kitchen counter on a lap top. A neighbor down the street telecommutes to New York City every day – her “workspace” being her back patio next to the pool, where she’s able to put in a solid days work as well as become the most perfectly tanned person I’ve ever known. There is, as far as I can tell, no downside to telecommuting – and we can make a great upside for corporations by allowing them to write off the cost of setting up telecommuting for their employees.

Those are three that I thought up (though the “four tens” thing was actually suggested by the Mrs – too close to the reality for me to actually notice that I spend less on gas than most because I’ve only got to drive in four days a week). What do you think of them? What would you do?

Discuss.