Thursday night, Republican Sarah Palin said at the vice presidential debate in St. Louis that:

Energy independence is the key to the future of the nation

How do we do that?  Pay4Rides is a concept that would drastically reduce energy consumption and help break our oil addiction.  We need to reduce trade with oil-rich countries to gain independence from foreign oil.

U.S. consumes over 20 million barrels of petroleum a day.  40% of this is consumed by automobiles which is 9 million barrels a day. U.S. consumes over 7 billion barrels a year.  Improving fuel economy is seen as a superior solution to trying to tap reserved locations like Wildlife Refuges.

So while more drilling will help increase our domestic production, it does not address the root problem of consumption.  Pay4Rides would tap into unused passenger energy and result in a dramatic reduction of demand.

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com