You might heard the phrase "Idle hands are the Devil’s tools." Apparently an idling vehicle is also sinful. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is sending a letter to President Obama, asking for a mandate that all federal vehicles be shut off when they’re in park and aren’t going to be used for a while.
Grassley says, "I wrote the same letter to President Bush last summer after getting fed up with seeing countless Towncars and SUVs owned by the government, idling outside of government office buildings day after day." Grassley chuckled in a conference call when a reporter suggested it might be okay if those government vehicles were fueled with corn-based ethanol, but said it would still be wasteful.
"I know gas prices have fallen from last year’s highs, but the wasteful and careless practice of idling federal vehicles is still very prevalent today," Grassley says. "Seeing idling administration vehicles burning taxpayers’ dollars on Capitol Hill burns me up as well as burning up the gas."
Grassley tried to encourage his staff members to carpool last year when gas prices were at four-dollars a gallon and higher, but had no success. Still, he says he and his wife carpool daily as they only have one car in Washington.
Grassley hopes President Obama will take his letter seriously. "The president of the United States campaigned very hard on this issue of conservation and this is a perfect example of wasteful spending and wasteful use of energy," Grassley says. "From the president on down as opposed to Senator Grassley on down, I think we can accomplish something."
Grassley has posted a video to YouTube , slamming the practice of idling government vehicles. In the video, Grassley even does an interview with his mechanic in New Hartford about how much gas it wastes, in addition to polluting the air.