With gas prices soaring, reports about global warming increasing in number and foreboding, Im asking myself how I can save some energy, if only for my own piece of mind?

In a separate article, I mentioned that yesterday was Car-less Tuesday. I gave my ride a day off and did my business by phone and by mail. Today, I carpooled and together, we got our errands done very efficiently.

But there are other ways we can do it.

One of them is by renting our videos through sources such as the Internet company, Netflix.

I dont own an interest in this company and Im not on their payroll. I am a subscriber to their service and I like it for several reasons:

(1) The cost per video rental is about a buck each;

(2) There are no traditional late fees; and

(3) Im saving time and fuel by not schlepping to and from my video store.

Lets discuss the last item.

Typically, Id visit my video store about six times per week; a minimum of three round trips. The store is about 4 miles away, so that means Id put on 24 city miles per week, burning at least two gallons of premium gas, at a cost of $7, more or less.

Of course, you have to add the time I wasted in driving and in searching the shelves for suitable titles to rent, and that consumed another three hours of my time. Plus, rushing back to return a rental isnt fun or convenient.

The store charges $3.75 per video rental, and half-price on Tuesdays.

Netflix will charge me about $27 a month for the privilege of checking out 4 titles at a time from their collection of 60,000 DVDs. All I have to do is open my mail to receive titles and either leave them for my letter carrier to pick up, or I can drop them in any mailbox, when it suits me. Then, upon receipt of my prior rentals, Netflix will send me four more.

So, for the price of my gas alone, Im able to rent roughly from 16-24 videos per month, from Netflix.

I love their business model because its a win/win situation for them and for consumers.

Already, I understand they are one of the largest U.S. Postal Service customers.

If more of us used services such as theirs, can you imagine how much money and gas we could save each year?