by Michael Stevenson

The price of gas is way up with no relief in sight. Hopefully high fuel prices can spur all of us to become more energy efficient and use our transportation dollars more wisely. There are several important things you can do to minimize the damage to your budget and help conserve the environment.

Avoid unnecessary driving in the first place by walking, carpooling, biking, taking Public Transit and by combining errands. Several short trips, each one taken from a cold start, can use twice as much fuel as one trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.

Stop excessive idling. Idling gets you 0 miles per gallon. Avoid aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) which wastes momentum (kinetic energy) thus lowering your gas mileage by up to a third. If you accelerate and brake many times, you constantly waste gas as opposed to when you drive smooth. Observe the speed limit. Gas mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph.

Remove excess weight from your car by avoiding storing unnecessary items in your vehicle. An extra 100 lb. in your car can reduce your MPG by up to 2%.

Use cruise control on the highway to help maintain a constant speed. Also drive in the highest gear, which lowers engine speed thus saving gas and reduces engine wear.

Use the recommended octane level of gasoline needed for your engine. For most cars, the octane level is 87. Keep your car properly tuned, replace oil and air filters at suggested intervals and use the recommended grade of motor oil, making sure that it says "Energy Conserving" on the API performance symbol guaranteeing it contains friction-reducing additives. Always keep your tires properly inflated. When your car is properly maintained it becomes much more energy efficient.

Try and stagger your work hours to avoid peak rush hours thus spending less time sitting in traffic wasting fuel. Consider telecommuting (working from home) if your employer permits it.

Take advantage of carpools and ride-share programs that save gas and wear and tear on your car. Being in a car with multiple passengers’ means you can use the special High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.

If you own more than one vehicle, drive the one that gets the best gas mileage whenever possible.

When replacing tires buy low rolling resistant ones, which can increase mileage by as much as 2 miles per gallon. If all Americans had low–rolling resistance tires, we could save more than 5.5 billion gallons of gas per year, reducing annual oil imports by as much as 4%.

When replacing your car buy the most fuel efficient model that meets your needs. At current gas prices the difference between a car that gets 20 MPG and one that gets 30 MPG amounts to over a $1,000 per year assuming 15,000 miles of driving. If you buy a hybrid car you could qualify for a federal tax credit. Go to the fuel economy website for information on gas mileage.

It appears that the end of cheap oil has hit us much sooner than even the direst predictions by environmentalists. Let’s use this great opportunity to begin in earnest to develop viable long-term energy strategies to burning fossil fuels. But meanwhile there are personal conservation choices that we can all make to mitigate this problem. Each of us needs to make a pledge to personally do what is necessary to save gas whether it affects us financially or not. If you waste gas it raises the price of everything we consume with the biggest impact on those who can least afford it.