Save Gallon of Gas a Week, Official Urges

A top Bush Administration energy official urged the American public Wednesday to save one gallon of gasoline a week, saying that effort would be “more than enough” to compensate for the loss of oil from Iraq and Kuwait.

Assistant U.S. Energy Secretary Michael Davis said the political crisis in the oil-rich Middle East has not created an energy crisis. But Davis suggested that the American public do its part with near-painless sacrifices such as properly inflating automobile tires, leaving gas-guzzling cars in garages, car pooling once a week and observing the speed limit.

“This will solve the shortfall, as long as we have enough Americans responding,” he said.

Conservation is the main thrust of a new short-term energy policy the Bush Administration revealed two weeks ago in response to Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. After the invasion, the United Nations imposed an embargo on Iraq that cut off 730,000 barrels of oil a day to the United States, about 4% of the nation’s total daily oil consumption.

“It’s hard for me to imagine that we can’t make that up by doing a few honest, straightforward things,” Davis said. “They may not be sexy, but they work.”

Davis made his remarks to about 300 state energy officials gathered in Newport Beach for a national conference addressing energy, environment and the economy.

Environmentalists and others have attacked the Administration’s plan as a shortsighted solution that trivializes energy issues.

Instead, they said, the Administration should take much bigger steps, such as pushing for production of alternative-fuel vehicles and adopting major fuel-efficiency programs that will not only cut consumption but also clean up the air and curtail global warming.

“We ought to be getting vigorous leadership in this from the federal government,” said Ralph Cavanagh, an energy expert and senior staff attorney at the San Francisco office of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“It would be nice if people put more air in their tires, but it would also be nice if they had more fuel-efficient cars to drive in the first place.”