today\'s question on MyYahoo.com is about Gas Prices

http://ask.yahoo.com/20050826.html

What\'s the ideal speed for maximum fuel efficiency?
Coasting on Fumes
 
 
Dear Fumes:
According to this chart from Eartheasy.com, the most fuel-efficient speed for your car is roughly 55 mph, or 90 km/h. Increasing your speed from 55 mph to 75 mph boosts your fuel consumption a stunning 20 percent!
You can boost your vehicle\'s fuel efficiency by as much as 30 percent simply by keeping it well maintained and driving it correctly. Here are a few suggestions:

Avoid jackrabbit starts, tailgating, or pumping the gas pedal. Starts and stops increase fuel consumption dramatically.
Take advantage of cruise control whenever possible -- driving at a steady speed saves fuel.
Try to avoid idling your car for more than a minute.
Keep your tires inflated and switch to radial, if you haven\'t already.
Reduce drag by keeping your windows rolled up, removing unused bike racks, and emptying your trunk.
Optimal fuel efficiency varies from car to car, so check your manual for more suggestions. The best option, of course, is simply to drive less. You can do this by planning trips ahead of time to avoid peak traffic hours or doing your errands a little closer to home.

How heavy is gasoline.

Gasoline is approximately 6 pounds/gallon

There are those that say driving with half a tank will save on gas mileage.
If you have a 12 gallon tank that is 72  extra pounds you are carrying in the car. If you cut that in half (only pumping to 1/2 tank of gas and "half filling" more often) then you netted a 36 pound loss of the car. if the car is 3,500 lbs to start with you are losing approximately 1% of the weight of the vehicle and hence losing 1% in gas mileage. If you get 25MPG you would now get 24.75MPG.

At $2.75/gallon you are saving 33˘ per tank THEOREDICALLY and having to stop at the gas station less often (based on a 12 gallon tank). To me its not worth it. Let me knonw how you all feel.

It seems to be going back down now, very slowly though   . It really sucks for those of us whose jobs require us to have trucks.

And now becuase of all these Gulf Coast hurricanes gas prices will skyrocket again  

I just paid 2.89 / gal for a fill-up today.  Ouch!

The news is no help.  AFTER this last storm they were talking 4 or 5 bucks.  Now they say the price will drop next week.  Meanwhile crude is at all time highs still

Dig in Alaska, become autonomous from the Middle East, build more
refineries, regulate the market (there are fewer and fewer players out
there with all the mergers today) and we should be fine. Ethanol... that\'s
 for another post.

The problem is that the ultra-liberal activists are backed by billionaires such as George Soros (who became rich by shorting the American Dollar) and very powerful lobbyist organizations who care not about welfare for Americans than the welfare of America.

Whever new legislation gets introduced to encourage the building of more resources for our country, it ultimately gets Filibustered in the Congress by the same old naysayers for America like Kennedy and Boxer.

Also how about the idea of gas taxes being directlly invested into co-op organizations (kinda how Power Companies do) to keep the $$ honest and targeted for the right things.  We need more American interest in our own resources, instead of having to worry about the ownership interests of Chavez and China.

Gas prices have broken the $2.60 mark with a gas station here in Orlando at $2.59. There are still stations near the airport at $3.39 for a swing of 79˘/gallon. Almost what we PAID for gas just a couple years ago (89˘ was the lowest I remember here in 2002ish).

The last three weeks here in Florida are as follows
2.984  2.921  2.833  

DEFINATELY headed in the right direction. A 5% decrease in two weeks. If this trend continues by this time next year gas prices should be at $1.56 (2.78 by end of this year). Let\'s only hope.