willyoujoinus.com is a website that urges you to save gas and conserve energy coming from a place you might not expect it - Chevron.

The site, which has a counter showing you how many barrels of gas have been consumed around the globe since you arrived at the site (I’m over 770,000 already), has an interactive energy generator calculator that shows you how to “do more with less.”  And, starting tomorrow, there will be an MPG Optimizer to learn how to “drive smarter” to save gas.

Perhaps most interesting is the Energyville game, which is SimCity-styled and puts you in charge of the energy resources of an entire city.   You get to decide how your city reaches full power, and the risks and rewards that go along with it.

Of course, Chevron isn’t only telling you how you can stop buying their gas - they’re telling you what the company is doing to become more efficient, how they’re embracing solar power, and so forth.   They’ve also compiled a section of important energy issues, so you can better educate yourself about the problems facing us going forward, and some viable solutions.

So, shiny graphics and fun games aside, what do we think? Is this all in good faith, or is this all in good PR?  Now, you may not believe this, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt on things like this, and assume that Chevron has realized that this bounty of plenty can’t last forever.   The energy crisis/global warming bandwagon may be a real popular one, but I try and embrace when oil companies jump on it instead of look for ulterior motives.   Besides, even if it’s all PR, they’re still telling us all how to save energy and how to look at the issues facing us.   And those means are as important as their ends.

So, takepart and visit willyoujoinus.com, and see what you can do, and what Chevron’s doing, to conserve energy.

By the way, in the time it took me to write this post, the world used almost 1,400,000 barrels of gas.