I was doing my usual reading on Hypermiling when I came across this article on CBN News.

My jaw dropped and so did my heart. I was appalled at how much ignorance showed not only in the comments to it but in the main article itself. People not interested in the following rant can skip the parts marked out as such.

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The generalization that hypermiling is illegal and risky is just plain naive and ignorant. Sure some techniques advocated by hypermiling die-hards are illegal and risky: stuff like tail-gaiting, shutting off engines during a FAS, etc.

But what about going below max speed limits? Planning trips? Keeping your foot light on the gas pedal? Travelling light? There is nothing wrong with those - a large number of hypermiling techniques advocate safe following distances (so that you don’t brake often), observing speed limits, defensive driving techniques, etc.

I hope the people at CBN (and the ignorant police officer) learn more about hypermilers before actually generalizing and branding all of us crooks. That is like saying that all hackers are criminals … but then thats a story for another blog and another time.

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