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A Call To Lower the Speed Limit to 55
Matthew S. Miller, AlterNet
It’s tough love for the oil addicted.
“I can’t drive 55!” — Sammy Hagar, Heavy Metal icon also responsible for the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack.
“People try to go as fast as the car will go … One thing the truckin’ industry has done year after year is raise the speed limit …When man goes a little bit faster than walkin’; that’s very unnatural … People have a way of getting’ carried away with it and they do this thing called speedin’ … I blame it all on the trucking industry, all of it, all this racing around and everything! So, I had this idea … — Michael Russell, Peripatetic Picker & Patriot
Fifty-five! Now there’s a number that used to unite the United States. Coast to coast the law of the land was fifty-five miles an hour. Just as patriotic Americans worked together and planted victory gardens to fight food shortages during WWII, in the 1970s, with help from the insightful policies of an enlightened congress, Americans responded to the OPEC energy embargo with character and resolve. We reduced our consumption of petroleum.
Imagine the national unity of will it must have taken in 1975 to get Chevrolet to produce the subcompact Chevette and to persuade people to drive it! The effect of the collective effort knocked a dent in the all time petroleum production curve and set peak oil back a decade from legendary oil geologist M. King a> initial estimate of a 1996 peak. It’s amazing what Americans can do when they work together! Just ask Neil Armstrong.
(31 May 2007)
Multi-billion rail plans aimed at tackling congestion
Dan Milmo, The Guardian
The government will unveil a multi-billion pound rebuilding programme for the British rail network this summer to ease congestion on the most crowded lines.
Ministers will give the go-ahead to the £500m reconstruction of Birmingham’s New Street station and are close to approving a £3.5bn overhaul of the former Thameslink route through London.
The two large development projects will feature in the government’s strategy for the railways between 2009 and 2014 to be announced in July. The High Level Output Statement [HLOS] comes at a critical juncture for the UK rail network, which has overcome a collapse in safety standards during the first 10 years of privatisation but is struggling to cope with booming demand.
…The HLOS will be published alongside a white paper that will outline government strategy for the railways over the next 30 years. Ministers are using the phrase “carbon, capacity and customers” to define their long-term strategy. The carbon section will examine the environmental benefits of rail and is expected to look at full electrification of the rail network in order to eliminate use of CO2-generating diesel trains. Capacity will focus on expanding next year a network that ran more than 1bn passenger journeys. Environmental groups have warned that after 2014 the incremental improvements, such as a rebuilt New Street station and a revamped London to Brighton route, will not be enough and new lines will have to be built. “That is the tough question: what do we do after 2014 when we run out of capacity?” said Mr Joseph.
(29 May 2007)
Ryanair: climate campaigners hitting sales
Dan Milmo, Guardian Unlimited
Ryanair admitted today that the onslaught from environmental campaigners against low-cost flying is affecting sales.
Howard Millar, Ryanair deputy chief executive, said he was “concerned” about the negative publicity gathering around the airline sector and admitted demand for flights was being impacted “at the edges”.
“I am concerned that there is a continuing media campaign and the concern is that people might say ‘maybe I will not fly on holiday and maybe I will make a different choice,'” he said.
Mr Millar added that there was a “very definite agenda” against the aviation industry over climate change and its reaction to it.
Some airline executives argue privately that Ryanair has not helped its cause by launching outspoken attacks against green groups.
Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair chief executive, denied earlier this month that the environmental debate is having an effect: “There is no suggestion the [eco] loonies are dissuading people from travel,” he said.
(31 May 2007)
Related from the Guardian:
BA voted as the least green brand
Budget airlines and green activists unite to fight airport plan
