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Schwarzenegger to Michigan: Get off your butt
David Shepardson, Detroit News
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled no punches Wednesday in telling Detroit automakers to “get off your butt” and increase the fuel efficiency of their cars and trucks, saying they are “still lagging behind.”
Schwarzenegger’s comments came as he responded to a billboard that went up last month along Interstate 75 in Detroit that criticized him for mandating vehicle emission caps in California that will be costly for Detroit automakers to meet.
The billboard, from U.S. Rep Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Hills, reads: “Arnold to Michigan: Drop Dead.” It features Schwarzenegger’s photo and drew widespread attention.
“Now, there’s a billboard in Michigan that accuses me of costing the car industry $85 billion,” Schwarzenegger said at a speech in Washington. “The billboard says, ‘Arnold to Michigan: Drop dead.’ The fact of the matter is what I’m saying is, Arnold to Michigan: Get off your butt. Get off your butt and join us.”
In 2002, California ordered its air resources board to adopt caps to dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions and force more than a 30 percent improvement in fuel economy over the next decade. The auto industry has filed suits to block the regulations. Schwarzenegger said the rules would help the industry.
“What we are doing is we are pushing them to make changes, to make the changes so they can sell their cars in California,” he said. “And we all know — let’s be honest — that if they don’t change, someone will. The Japanese will. The Chinese will. The South Koreans will. The Germans will.”
…Knollenberg spokesman Trent Wisecop said Schwarzenegger “is dead wrong on this issue. The mandates that are coming out of California would devastate the manufacturing sector of the American economy.”
(12 April 2007)
UPDATE: Just posted.
Reality is knocking, but Detroit isn’t listening. -BA
Cautious approval for plan to end rail network private ownership
Stewart Paterson, The Herald Scotland
Passenger groups and business leaders yesterday said they would not oppose a not-for-profit organisation taking control of train operations after The Herald revealed top level informal talks have already taken place.
The paper reported how privatisation on Scotland’s railways could end within four years with one firm running tracks, stations and trains.
Executives at Network Rail, the quasi-public concern that already runs rail infrastructure, are understood to have discussed operating passenger services as well.
Reacting to the idea, John McCormick, chairman of the Scottish Association for Public Transport, said: “I don’t think we would have much objection to Network Rail operating trains. However, we would like to ensure it was still bid for on a competitive basis with other commercial organisations. That maintains the need to improve services and keep costs down. ..
(13 Apr 2007)
Privatisation of public transport has been a disaster in my city of Melbourne Au., with the State government spending $800million a year subsidising train and tram franchisees who provide worsening service. Can anyone point me to a privatised public transport system that works? -LJ
Air travel poses major threat to biodiversity, say scientists
Ian Sample, The Guardian
Global air travel has become one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and public health by driving the spread of alien species and infectious diseases to new habitats, scientists report today.
The explosive growth of worldwide airlines has seen passenger numbers rise 8% a year in the past three years, creating travel networks that link remote and isolated ecosystems for the first time, boosting the spread of micro-organisms and insects to unprecedented levels, the scientists claim. The introduction of insects and other organisms from foreign regions has triggered ecological disasters around the globe. Many have no natural predators and thrive at the expense of native species which have not had time to evolve defences against the invaders.
Researchers at Oxford University analysed records for more than 3m scheduled flights between 3,570 airports around the world between May 2005 and April 2006 and calculated the most heavily-used routes. They then overlaid global climate maps, revealing the times of year different parts of the world experienced the best conditions for alien species to survive. By combining the information Andrew Tatem and Simon Hay at the university’s spatial ecology and epidemiology group highlighted “invasion hotspots”, the destinations most at risk from insects and micro-organisms being carried into the countries throughout the year.
(11 April 2007)
Autos and ships also are effective at spreading non-native species. -BA
NY Auto Show – ‘Green Cars’
Ira Flatow, National Public Radio Audio & video
Join Ira and guests in this hour of Science Friday for a preview of this year’s New York International Auto Show and the latest in green car technology. We’ll talk about green cars, biofuels, the promise of plug-in hybrids, and the newly-unveiled Auto X-Prize.
(6 Apr 2007)
Passenger trains returning to S. Montana?
Associated Press
HELENA – A revived effort to reinstate passenger rail service in southern Montana picked up steam Tuesday, with the Schweitzer administration backing the idea and Amtrak officials outlining possible funding sources.
Passenger trains last chugged through southern Montana in 1979, and supporters said the time has come for them to run again.
State ridership on Montana’s current lone passenger route, Amtrak’s Empire Builder along the Hi-Line, is up at least 20 percent and travelers are looking for more options in the face of high gas prices and heightened air travel costs and security, Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger said.
“This couldn’t come at a better time,” said Jim Lynch, director of the state Department of Transportation.
(11 April 2007)
Contributor B.Sutter writes: There’s no mention of peak oil, which indicates a lack of understanding and that it’s merely a reaction to higher gas and airline prices. But it’s a start.
Transport seen surging, damaging climate-UN draft
Alister Doyle, Reuters
OSLO, April 12 (Reuters) – Surging use of cars and planes will push up greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades, making the transport sector a black spot in a fight against global warming, according to a draft U.N. report.
“Transport activity is expected to grow robustly over the next several decades,” according to a 101-page technical summary of a draft report by the U.N. climate panel, the most authoritative on threats from global warming.
The summary, to be issued on May 4 in Bangkok at a meeting of scientists and more than 100 governments, says efforts to curb emissions from transport “are faced with many barriers” despite options such as new engine technologies or biofuels.
Transport, mostly trucks and cars, accounted for 26 percent of total world energy use in 2004 and, barring a major shift, “projections foresee a continued growth in world transportation energy use by 2 percent a year, with energy use and carbon emissions about 80 percent above 2002 levels by 2030.”
In some nations such as the United States, Italy and Australia car ownership is already 5 to 8 per 10 inhabitants — 10 or 100 times more than in developing states. ..
(12 Apr 2007)
