In 2008, the United States exported $1.2 billion of our county’s capital every day to foreign economies for the purchase of crude oil. Many of those countries are antagonistic to the U.S., and very few of them buy anything from us. Oil purchases represent a huge drain on our economy and on our standard of living. In 1977, when the U. S. Department of Energy was created with the goal of making our country energy independent, the U.S. exported less than 8 percent of our current amount.

As you know from previous articles, when we talk about energy independence, we are talking about oil, and oil fuels our transportation system. You also know that oil is likely to be our least abundant energy resource in the years to come.

So, if we want to cut down our dependence on foreign oil, we have to reform our transportation system, and the very best place to start is with commuting.

One hundred and twenty-eight million people in this country commute to work. About one hundred and thirteen million of those drive. Sixteen percent of those carpool, and 84 percent drive to work alone.

The average commute in this country is 16 miles each way, and takes an average of 25.5 minutes, so drive-alone commuters travel nearly 95 million miles a year. Do they really have to?

With the advent of personal computers and the internet, it is now possible to use technology to work outside of the traditional office, and many people do. From 2003 to 2008 the number of people who worked outside the office at least one day per month rose 43 percent, from 23.5 million to 33.7 million.

Federal employees have been required to telework to the maximum extent possible since 2000, but only 5.2 percent do. Congress is unhappy with that level of compliance, and both the House and Senate have passed bills aimed at enforcing the mandates.

As can be seen from the Federal experience, there is considerable entrenched resistance to telecommuting, especially from managements that practice Management-by-observation rather than Management-by-results, even though there are well documented benefits for employers. Typical research projects show a 27 percent productivity increase on telecommuting days, a 3.7 day per year reduction in absenteeism, and a 25 percent reduction in attrition.

TechCast (a George Washington University think tank), believes telecommuting will rapidly increase. They forecast that 30 percent of workers in industrialized nations will telework 2 to 3 days a week by 2019.

The energy effects of this movement are enormous.

Let’s say we set a national goal to get 40 percent of our workers telecommuting half-time by 2020. Achieving that goal would translate into a 20 percent reduction in commuter miles driven. If we apply that reduction to just those commuters who drive alone, we could save 605,875,200 passenger miles per day. At a fleet average of 20.8 miles per gallon, we would save 29,128,615 gallons of gasoline per day, which means that we would avoid importing 1,450,843 barrels of oil. At today’s prices, that means we would be putting $110,264,075 back into our own economy’s pocket every day.

That figure underestimates the total energy saved, however, because it does not take into account the savings that accrue from reducing the commercial footprint resulting from accommodating fewer on-site employees. The Telework Research Network estimates electricity savings alone to be in the neighborhood of 4,400 kWh per person per year.

Clearly, it’s time to get off the road, eliminate about 2 hours a week of frustration and annoyance, and impoverish a sheik.