The Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has revealed the imminent implementation of an
energy saving plan in the General State Administration
(AGE) and has spread various "recommendations" to the population to save energy resources.
As transportation is a crucial activity for the attempt to limit oil imports, she has not lacked in her explanations the reference to the possibility of
lowering the maximum speed limit on highways from 120 to 110 km/h,
among other solutions.
It is a solution that was implemented with the oil crisis of 1973 and more recently in the last stretch of the Government of
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
.
The speed limit went into effect on March 7, 2011 and declined on June 30.
After those just four months, figures of 450 million euros
saved (it would be 1,300 million per year) were offered from the Interior
, although years later, the general director of Traffic then (and now),
Pere Navarro
, stated that it had not been disclosed exactly the economic impact of the measure and
regretted that it lasted so little time
.
Subtract 157 million barrels
The purpose of the Royal Decree issued by the Government was to reduce fuel costs by between 11% in the case of diesel and 15% in the case of gasoline.
Other studies lowered the savings to 8%.
The DGT congratulated itself because, despite the
almost generalized protests
(from the opposition as a whole and even from Fernando Alonso),
the population had complied with the regulations
and beyond what it meant of lower consumption and polluting agents, it translated into a relief for the figures of serious road accidents.
The change of signs with stickers throughout Spain, necessary to implement the measure, cost 230,000 euros.
In fact, Teresa Ribera echoed the decalogue of the
International Energy
Agency (IEA) to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and lower the bill of the countries.
Among other actions, this agency created by the OECD proposes to promote
public transport and car sharing,
teleworking, regulate the temperature inside buildings, or adapt the hours of work centers to consume less energy.
According to the IEA, reducing the maximum speed on roads from 120 km/h to 110 km/h would
save 430,000 barrels of oil per day
, some 157 million barrels in industrialized countries and 17,000 million euros in savings.
Transferring these figures to Spanish consumption, we would speak of
2,300 million less each year
.
Electrifying official mobility
After Ribera's explanations about his savings plan in official State bodies, the Spanish section of the organization Transport & Environment wasted no time in adding an element that did not appear in the minister's speech: the
electrification of the official fleets
, which add a total of
36,512 cars
without counting police and emergency vehicles (firefighters, ambulances...).
The park of the General Administration of the State (AGE) is about
10,500
.
"For Transport & Environment it is necessary that the electrification of the fleets be included in the [Government's] plan, so that it is more effective.
It is time to take a firm step forward
and approve regulations that include
more ambitious objectives
", says the group of environmental specialists in mobility.
T&E also recalls that
in June "the two years that the Executive was going to give itself the deadline to renew the public fleet
of vehicles of the General State Administration, made up of nearly 10,500 vehicles," will be fulfilled.
Public fleets are "
the best example for extending energy saving measures
", since "
road transport accounts for more than half of oil demand
", insists T&E.
"This is the right time to implement a plan for the electrification of Public Administration vehicles, whether
state, regional or local
".
Environmentalists consider that the effect of the electrification of the fleets would promote the development
of recharging networks
throughout the territory, including less populated areas.
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