Over the last few weeks I have watched gas priced in my home town continue to rise. Grant it the prices here are some of the lowest in the United States, but watching them continue to go up really irks me. It seems that the prices have risen 75 cents in the last 3 months. That is really ridiculous.

Not only do I protest the crazy rise in gas prices, but the consumption of crude oil and continued drilling of our planet, and the occasional event of pollution from an oil spill seems just a little too much to me. As a US citizen, I have no choice but to bend at the government’s will and consume my share of gasoline, filling the politicians’ pockets with my money, but I also know that there are ways to consume less gasoline, and use less power and find alternatives to the traditions that this country has laid in stone.

I plan for this blog entry to grow in to multiple entries as I go around and find new and better ways to consume the energy we need to run our daily lives. I plan to look at the bigger picture and show as many people as I can how to find a car that uses alternative energy sources and ways to set up other means of energy generators for your home.

Today, though, I want to explore the different ways to save on gas. Take a look at the following:

1. Walk: That’s right, I said walk.  It is good for you.  If you walk down the street to your friend’s house rather than take the car because you are too lazy, you will save on gas. If you walk the two or three miles to the store to get those stacks for your movie night, you will save on gas. Not only that, you will be in better shape as well. We don’t get out enough as it is.

2. Carpool: You have heard it everywhere. If you carpool to work, you will save money. A coworker and I used to take turns every week driving to work. It worked out that we were on the exact same shift. I believe we saved about $80 per month each  because we carpooled to work. The more people you get involved in the carpool, the more money you will save, the less gas you will use.

3. Keep it between 55-65 miles per hour: It has been proven that most cars get better gas mileage on the highway if you keep it between 55-65 miles per hour. I know you are in a hurry, but we are talking about saving money, not time.

4. Get a better car: I am not trying to sell you a car here, but if you are driving a truck, van or SUV, you should seriously think about selling it and buying an economy car. Think about it. Your big vehicle probably gets between 18-25 miles to the gallon. A small 4-cyl 4-door compact could get you between 30 and 35 miles to the gallon, and that’s a regular unleaded gas guzzling machine. Now if you have a job where you need a truck or you have a family of 15 and need the cargo van, that is another story. If you only have a family of four and you work a desk job somewhere, you don’t need a big truck. Go trade it in for something smaller.

Now the good part:

5. Find a car that drives on alternative fuels. There are cars now that are either awesome on gas or run on something that is not going to deplete like crude oil.

Hybrid: Gas powered, but has an electric engine and batteries that do great inside the city. If you drive the highways a lot, this probably will not be for you, plus I heard a roomer that the electric engines have a short lifespan and are expensive to replace.

Ethanol 85: this one is probably winning the battle at the moment.  Most of the big trucks and some of the cars already have engines that run on this stuff. It is made from 85% corn based fuel and 15% crude based fuel. I think the government has their hands in this one as well. That is probably why it is winning.

Hydrogen: This is the cleanest. Basically you put a hydrogen cell in the fuel tank and the engine uses the hydrogen to run the car. Then the only thing that is expelled from the exhaust pipe is water. I like this one the best. I just don’t foresee it winning the new fuel war.

Other Bio-Fuels: Ethanol is basically a bio-fuel, but there are others out there that don’t use any crude to run your engine. From what I understand, these bio-fuels actually run on diesel engines that already exist. You just have to find the people who are refining these bio-diesel formulas for you to use.

I hope this was a good start at what I hope to be a continuing exploration into new and better ways to create and use power.