While we’re on the subject of swashbuckling billionaires, Richard Branson has lately proposed lowering speed limits, a move he says will save gasoline and thereby reduce the flow of money to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. I’m all for defeating Putin, but making drivers slow down would have little impact on his oil sales.
Let’s start with the obvious: We’ve been here before. In response to the 1973 oil embargo, the U.S. Congress mandated a 55 mph limit nationwide to save gasoline, a rule that was softened in the 1980s and finally abandoned in 1995. That’s essentially the rule that Branson wants the West to adopt in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Alas, our two-decade experiment with the 55 mph limit reduced gasoline consumption by at most 1% — probably much less — a finding that led the National Research Council to conclude dryly that the policy’s effect on fuel conservation “was not large.”
