Set America Free Notes&Comments

Terrorists know what they are doing when they target oil. In oil, as in other aspects, they take advantage of our free and open system to do us harm. From today’s WSJ:

“In September 2004, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a delta warlord whom the Nigerian government had accused of oil smuggling, declared ‘all out war’ on the government. Annkio Briggs, a senior aide to Mr. Asari at the time, says the warlord’s comments were carefully crafted and timed to move global prices. Carried by news agencies, the remarks helped push New York futures prices above $50 a barrel for the first time.

“‘We were aware of the price of oil, and we were aware that it was dependent on supply and demand, and we were aware that supplies had to be stable,’ says Ms. Briggs in an interview. ‘We looked around at other countries that were big producers, and we could see anytime there was a crisis the price of oil would go up, so it didn’t take a lot of intelligence or mathematics to figure it out.’”

Gal Luft and Anne Korin wrote about this way back in December 2003 in the Journal of International Security Affairs: Terror’s Next Target.

AP: “Venezuelans threw eggs and fruit at the U.S. ambassador’s car Friday, and motorcyclists chased his convoy for miles, at times pounding on the vehicles [...] Venezuelan police escorts did not intervene as a car carrying Ambassador William Brownfield was pounded and pelted. No one was hurt.

‘We’re being attacked by groups of motorcyclists while we’re traveling in an embassy car,’ Penn said by cell phone during the chase. ‘It’s a very violent demonstration by a small group of people who appear to be organized by the mayor’s office.’”

Venezuela is one of the top oil suppliers to the U.S.

UPDATE: BBC reports that Chavez has told the US ambassador “start packing” before he “kicks him out”, saying in a nationally televised speech “I’m going to throw you out of Venezuela if you continue provoking the Venezuelan people.” Chavez said Ambassador Brownfield was partially responsible for the incident because he failed to advise the local authorities or the foreign ministry of his travel plans. Mr Brownfield was visiting a low-income neighbourhood in Caracas to donate baseball equipment to underprivileged children.

Some great tips from our neighbors up north, on how to keep your tires from draining your fuel tank. Properly inflated and aligned tires can reduce your fuel consumption by 4% – that’s two weeks of driving a year!

Watch our 1-minute video clip –
Do your part: pump it up!

UPDATE: The National Academies’ Transportation Research Board just issued a study titled “Tires and Passenger Vehicle Fuel Economy”, conducted at the request of Congress with funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Bottom line finding: better replacement tires, that reduce rolling resistance by 10%, would improve gas mileage by 1 to 2 percent and save about 1 billion to 2 billion gallons of fuel per year – that’s equivalent to the fuel that would be saved by taking 2 million to 4 million cars and light trucks off the road. The study’s bottom line recommendation: Label tires for fuel efficiency so consumers can make smart decisions.

Glad to report that critical oil savings legislation now in front of both the House and Senate includes a provision to label replacement tires so consumers can tell how they would affect gas mileage.

To read key excerpts of the report, click More.
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A Set America Free red white and blue cheer to Rep Gallegly, Elton [CA-24], Rep Kuhl, John R. “Randy”, Jr. [NY-29], Rep Beauprez, Bob [CO-7], Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4] and Rep Harman, Jane [CA-36] for becoming cosponsors of HR. 4409 The Fuel Choices for American Security Act!
Is your Representative on board?

…who just signed on to S.2025, The Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act, based on the Set America Free blueprint for energy security. Is your Senator on board yet?

About 4% of U.S. oil demand is due to home heating. These lists offer a great way to save on heating oil (and natural gas) use:
Things You Can Do to Make Your Household Energy Dollar Go Further
Home Energy Checklist

An important step on the road to fuel choice. We encourage Florida to follow!

Have a hybrid? Want the option of plugging it in? You’re not the only one:

“it has the same Prius ingredients – an efficient petrol engine, automatic gearbox, electric motor and additional battery pack. However, this Prius returns in excess of 100mpg in petrol-powered mode [...] At the rear bumper of the Plug-in is a flap which covers a socket. Unlike a standard Prius, you boost the batteries overnight on cheap-rate electricity, and that is the key to its remarkable urban performance.” Go forth and read it all.

EDrive Systems is doing similar conversions in the U.S.

In case you’re wondering what electricity in the U.S. is generated from, click here. (Hint: almost totally not from oil.)
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1. Weekly energy-security oped roundup

2. University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute’s Auto News Service

Gal Luft will be speaking about oil dependence and national security at UD at 7:30 p.m. this Wednesday as part of the Global Agenda lecture series, ?Hidden Dangers: Global Challenges Below the Radar?.

UPDATE: article about the event. Note there is one error in the article – instead of methane (a gas), it should have said methanol (a liquid fuel).