YOUR
GAS IS AS GOOD AS MINE
There
are over 140 million cars in the U.S. According to the DOT (THE DEPARMENT OF
TRAMSPORTATION), each is driven an average of 10,000 miles annually –which
means that Americans drive more dtan a trillion vales every year.
BACKGROUND.
We all know that cars
have a serious impact on the environment‑but because we depend on them in
our daily lives, it's unrealistic to suggest that people stop driving
altogether. (See p. 89 for suggestions on driving less)
Don't despair. Even
if you drive every day, there's something simple you can do to help the earth:
Make sure your car is running as efficiently as possible. Getting good gas
mileage isn't just a matter of economics; a fu6efficient vehicle is actually
less destructive to our planet than a gas hog.
DID
YOU KNOW
0 Autos and light trucks emit 20% of this
country's fossil fuel car~ bon dioxide (C02)‑ the key ingredient in the
"greenhouse effect."
0 The amount of C02 a car emits is
directly related to the amount of gas it uses. Cars give off 20 lbs. of C02 for
every gallon of gas consumed. So a car that gets 18 mpg will emit a ton of C02
every 1800 miles. By comparison, a car that gets 27 mpg will emit 2/3 of a ton‑33%
less‑‑in the same distance.
* Cars also cause
acid rain by emitting 34% of the nitrogen oxide spewed out in the U.S. That's
more than 7 million tons every year‑a figure that can be reduced by
burning less gasoline.
* And cars emit 27%
of the hydrocarbons that cause tree‑killing, lung‑damaging ozone
smog. Again, this is directly related to the
amount of fuel
consumed.
SIMPLE
THINGS TO DO
9 Keep Your Car Tuned Up. It's the
eastest way to make your car more fuel efficient. A well‑tuned car uses
up to 9% less gasoline than a poorly tuned car. That means 9% fewer toxic emissions.
0 Keep track of your gas mileage. So if
there's a sudden drop, you can catch it and get the problem fixed quickly.
SIMPLE GAS SAVERS 0 Don't let your car idle unnecessarily. It
takes less gas to start a car than it takes to let it idle. Idling become less
efficient than restarting your car after about a minute.
• Keep fuel filters
clean. Clogged filters use mord gas.
• Stay light. Check
to see whether you're hauling around unneces. sary weight (we mean in your
car). Surprisingly, an extra 100 pounds will decrease your fuel economy by more
than 1%.
IF YOU'RE BUYING A
NEW CAR:
Check the specs. Get
the latest EPA Gas Mileage Guide to check the fuel economy figures and compare
specifications.
Keep fuel efficiency
in mind. Remember: a car that gets 28.5 mpg (the standard for 1989 cars)
will emit 15‑20
tons less C02 in its lifetime than the average car on the
road today. You can now buy cars (e.g., the Geo Metro) that get almost 55 mpg‑and
some prototypes (the Toyota AXV) have gotten up to 100 mpg.
Is an air conditioner
really necessary? It's an ecological disaster. In addition to directly
contributing to the greenhouse effect, and to ozone depletion by leaking CFCs,
an air conditioner adds to the weight of a car‑‑so it uses extra
gas even when it's not running
Weigh options
carefully. Optional equipment like power steering and automatic transmissions
need a lot of energy to run. Other extras like electric motor‑driven
windows or power brakes don't use as much, but still add to a car's weight and
reduce fuel economy.
RESULTS
Little things help:
For example, if only 100,000 car owners who'd neglected tuneups started getting
their cars tuned up regularly, some 90 million lbs. of C02 could be kept out
of the atmosphere every year. A million car owners (that's less than 1 0/0‑‑remember,
there are 140 million cars in the U.S. alone) could eliminate nearly a billion
lbs. of C02.
SOURCES Gas Mileage
Guide.
Consumer Information
Center, Pueblo, CO 81009.
This free, annual Dept. of Energy / EPA publication will
tell you dhe gas mileage you can expectftom each make and model of car. It even
estimates what your gas bill will be.