USA Oil Supply Response

President Nixon was in office. His move against the high cost of oil was to lower the Interstate freeway speed limit to just fifty five miles per hour. The federal government even passed a law that only allowed V-8 engines to be sold in one ton or larger pickups. All the young folk stuck in a new half ton pickup had to be slowed down by a V-6 engine.

Mike’s grand father owned a diary farm. That allowed him to help his grand children out. In Mike’s case his grand father purchased a new three quarter ton Ford pickup for him. It looked nice. It’s just the V-6 engine didn’t supply as much power as the old worn out Dodge V-8 had. As much as limping along hurt Mike was able to tell himself his new pickup would be able to take him into town to attend college.

Mandatory Speed Limit Avoidance

Not all the states followed the Federal Government all the way. In new Mexico if you got busted speeding over fifty five but you were still driving under the old peed limit on any highway you just had to pay the fine. It didn’t go on your driving record.

Mike hated his gutless new pickup. It would slow way down on the freeway every time a hill had to be climbed. Mike got into compensating for that by letting his new pickup fly down hill. That would give it more speed to lower from when the hill got hit on the other side of the valley. Unfortunately this driving tactic could get expensive. One afternoon during rush hour traffic a city policeman sat in the valley running radar. Mike had a hard time explaining everey thing to his father because the ticket was going to cost the family fifty dollars.

Lower Speed Limit Remembered

This warning is relevant because it shows how much power the Federal Government actually has. It can regulate the freeways over state governments. In our current fuel crisis I bet most of the drivers on the road would really resent having to drive as slow as they still had to fifteen years ago.

In this day and age Mike can’t help remembering what it was like to have to drive just fifty five miles per hour. Slugging along like that could drive anyone that is in a hurry nuts. Because his new Chevrolet three quarter ton pickup burns a lot of gas when he lets it run at seventy five miles per hour Mike has started making himself adjust the cruise control to seventy miles per hour. That way Mike can grin and hope the speed limit doesn’t get lowered again.