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Fuel lost while sitting in line?
Jim Murray, email
Here in New Jersey we have toll roads and would like to post a question on how much fuel is wasted sitting in lines to pay toll and what is lost in productivity? How much more are we adding to our carbon foot print?
(30 November 2008)
The other question is how much fuel is lost while sitting in traffic jams? -BA
Whatever happened to the hydrogen economy?
David Strahan, The New Scientist
Whatever happened to the hydrogen economy? At the turn of the century it was the next big thing, promising a future of infinite clean energy and deliverance from climate change.
Generate enough hydrogen, so the claim went, and we could use it to transform the entire energy infrastructure – it could supply power for cars, planes and boats, buildings and even portable gadgets, all without the need for dirty fossil fuels. Enthusiasts confidently predicted the breakthrough was just five to 10 years away. But today, despite ever-worsening news on global warming and with peak oil looming, the hydrogen economy seems as distant as ever.
Even in Iceland, whose grand ambitions for a renewable hydrogen economy once earned it the title Bahrain of the north, visible progress has been modest. After years of research, the country now boasts one hydrogen filling station, a handful of hydrogen cars, and one whale-watching boat with a fuel cell for auxiliary power. A trial of three hydrogen-powered buses ended in 2007, when two were scrapped and the third was consigned to a transport museum. More trials are planned, but that was before the meltdown of the country’s banking system. In California, where governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promised a “hydrogen highway” with 200 hydrogen filling stations by 2010, there are just five open to the public. Ten hydrogen-fuelled buses are due to come into service in London by 2010, but a plan for 60 smaller hydrogen vehicles was recently scrapped…
(28 November 2008)
Boris Johnson axes London congestion charge extension
Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian
Boris Johnson was today accused of turning his back on carbon emission reductions and turning “petrol blue” after announcing he would scrap western extension of the London congestion charge.
Johnson’s decision to rip up Livingstone’s extended congestion charge zone will see the area of London covered by a charge on motorists using London roads almost halved.
The decision – first revealed on Dave Hill’s London blog – followed a public consultation exercise in which the mayor promised to “listen to the people of London”…
(27 November 2008)
