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Sick Transit
Ben Adler, American Prospect
The president’s new budget is predictably bad for mass transit. Alas, the Democrats aren’t all that much better on the issue.
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…the president’s actions, as proposed in the budget he released last week, are sorely disappointing. Alas, on one key plank the Democrats’ are only marginally better. With all the focus on, in Webb’s words, “alternate energy programs,” too many are ignoring a long-existing technology that, unlike, say, ethanol, already has the power to radically reduce our oil consumption. I’m speaking, of course, of mass transit.
Americans drive more than any other society, using automobiles for 88 percent of all trips. This is a major reason why we contribute 30 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming.
Meanwhile, America has taken almost all of its trolley systems out of use. Subway and light rail services struggle to cope with budget shortfalls, while Amtrak constantly raises prices and while providing passengers with sub-par service. As anti-sprawl author James Howard Kunstler says, “We have a railroad system in America that the Bolivians would be ashamed of. There isn’t one thing we could do in this country that would have a greater impact on our oil use than restoring the American rail system to something like a European level of service.”
But President Bush, in his budget, proposes to cut the federal Railroad Administration budget by 19 percent, from $1.32 billion to $1.07 billion. Meanwhile, he proposes an equally large percentage increase to the already enormous Federal Highway Administration budget, from $31.48 billion to $37.18 billion. He cannot plausibly claim to take carbon emissions seriously while making such counterproductive budget recommendations. But neither can the Democrats in Congress, whose own proposal last week suggested keeping railroad funding steady at $1.3 billion for Fiscal 2008 — not even enough to keep pace with inflation, never mind improving and expanding service or making tickets more affordable.
(14 Feb 2007)
Clearing the air
Emissions from commercial planes prompt concerns about regulating greenhouse gases
David Armstrong, SF Chronicle
As the debate over global warming heats up, airlines, regulators and environmentalists agree that emissions from commercial aircraft are a growing source of greenhouse gases and need to be brought under control.
Their problem: how to cut toxic emissions without cutting into the economics of the financially vulnerable airline industry.
Airlines contribute a small but growing share of the planet’s toxic emissions: 2 percent of the total in 2005, and that amount is expected to rise to 3 percent by 2050.
The growth in travel, sparked by the increase in low-fare airlines around the world, has led to higher emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, which most scientists believe contribute to climate change and cause more damage when discharged at high altitudes than at sea level.
The European Union has taken the lead in addressing aviation greenhouse emissions, proposing a system of carbon trading.
(14 Feb 2007)
Passenger jets get a radical green makeover
Danny Bradbury, The Independent
If passenger jets were a different shape, they would produce far less CO2. Danny Bradbury meets the high-fliers who are leading a green revolution at 35,000ft
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It’s 55 years since the De Havilland Comet entered service as the world’s first purpose-built jet airliner, and as the international media were treated to a test flight aboard the Airbus A380 a week ago, it was clear that travelling at 30,000 feet in a metal tube with wings can still leave us awestruck.
But a decade or so from now, our aircraft could be radically different. Sophisticated computer controls and new design concepts are producing something that looks more like a manta ray without the tail. In March, Boeing will begin test flights with a scaled-down X-48B, an aircraft that almost does away with the fuselage altogether and makes it part of the wing. The aim is to slash fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
(14 Feb 2007)
Greenbody asks government to increase tax on cars
India eNews
Warning that the unchecked growth of cars are contributing heavily towards energy and environment insecurity, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Thursday said India must increase taxes on all cars.
‘India is in the grip of an impending energy crisis as we are consuming more oil than ever before and the growing transport sector is guzzling a lot of this,’ said a new CSE study on fuel economy in the transport sector.
The report, released Thursday here, said the 2007-08 union budget must address this ‘linkage between vehicles and energy insecurity’.
The report underlines that private vehicles account for 62 percent of diesel consumption in the transport sector. More and more vehicle manufacturers are introducing diesel variants.
The transport sector is the single biggest user of oil and oil products using up around 30 percent of the total consumption in the country.
‘If the numbers and usage of cars grow unchecked and the government fails to introduce fuel economy standards to make them more fuel-efficient, India will hurtle towards a serious energy crisis,’ said the report, adding that since 2001, the union budget has lowered taxes on cars successively resulting in a phenomenal increase in car numbers.
Anumita Roychoudhury, associate director, CSE and the team leader of the study, said industry estimates suggest that car sales crossed the one million mark in just 11 months in 2006.
‘With economic growth there has been a steady shift towards bigger cars.
(15 Feb 2007)
