We Can't Inflate Our Way Out Of This

At the risk of sounding like another right-wing pundit, I've got to say that Obama's energy policy just keeps worsening. It's almost to the point of ridiculousness.

Case in point.

Last week, he advocated the use of the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve), a sort of virtual savings account of petroleum that is kept and controlled by the federal government. It's for national emergencies, only to be used if the very infrastructure of our country is threatened. It's got enought petroleum to keep the country running for 1 and 1/2 to 3 days. But wait, Obama (and Nancy Pelosi) wants to risk not having enough so that we can have a very small (and very short-lived) gas price drop? Bollocks. It's about as effective as the McCain-Hillary gas tax holiday.

The SPR is not a political tool meant to be manipulated by political candidates for their own expediency. It's a last-ditch national defense mechanism.

But now, we've stepped it up a notch.

Obama now says we can save "3-4% more oil" by "inflating our tires to the proper level" (what he really means by this is overinflation of tires) and getting "tune-ups". Well, gee, Barry, I had no idea I shouldn't drive on flat tires and crappy systems. Now since You've told me to, I'll do it!!

2 problems with this.

Cars don't really get "tune-ups" anymore, older cars do. Sure, we change oil from time-to-time and change tires not-that-often. But "tune-ups" today really don't comprise of anything, since most problems occur in a specific part of a car, identified by the car's own systems and then fixed by a mechanic.

Secondly, overinflation of your tires causes a lot of problems. First, if you're driving in hot weather (and everything's getting hotter, thanks to Al Glorebal Warming), your overinflated tires have a very high risk of bursting, because of the heat and pressure increase inside the tire and the friction between the tire and the road. Also, on wet roads, you've got a higher risk of hydroplane, making it easy to get into an accident. Heck, even running over a very sharp object would pop the overinflated tire faster than it would a less-inflated one.

Sure, maybe you do save on oil (although those statistics of his campaign may be quite skewered, since to begin the calculations you have to assume that nobody's driving on so-called "properly-inflated" tires) but you lose more in the long run, unless you're a tire salesman.

I'm not saying McCain's policy is particularly great, but it's a heck of a lot better than this drivel we get from Obama and his campaign. I hear the McCain campaign is giving away Obama tire-gauges. Fantastic, because the change I need isn't a tire change or an oil change. And it's not the change Obama offers.

Sometimes he tries too hard to pander to unassuming voters. And this time, it's backfired.