Energy: driving slower to import less Russian oil

The International Energy Agency recommends driving slower, 10 km/h on the highway, to import less Russian oil. The measure leaves skeptics some motorists. “Anyway, we reduce on our own, but I’m not necessarily for”, how one of them. “We don’t have to do that. Soon the bikes will overtake us”ifannoyed another. In 1973, in the midst of the oil crisis, the Prime Minister, Pierre Messmer, had already imposed this measure. Speed ​​was for the first time regulated on national roads and motorways.

If motorists and truck drivers in OECD countries reduced their speed on the motorway by 10 km/h, it would be possible to save 430,000 barrels of oil per day. “It’s about a quarter of the solution, changing consumer behavior. That’s not everything, but if we don’t do that, we won’t make it.”explains Mark Jedliczkaspokesperson for the association NegaWatt. However, the idea seems to have been ruled out by the government, one month before the presidential election.