Fossil fuels

Exhaust-carbon suppression: If it works on diesel locos why not on diesel buses, cars and trucks also?

On the “Greenhouse Gases Equivalencies Calculator – Calculations and References” page provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) one will find a wealth of information related to greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and their equivalencies. Two areas of particular note as they relate to carbon-dioxide-emissions-releases from U.S.-based cars and diesel trucks examined are: “Gallons … Read more

Car vs transit-bus travel comparison

When taken into consideration that the purchase of fuel and the taxes paid on that fuel, maintenance (e.g. oil and filter changes), insurance, registration, smog testing (biennial or every two years, typically) and parking to name a few, car ownership isn’t exactly an inexpensive proposition. Also there are associated social and environmental costs to consider. … Read more

Latest California high-speed rail plan questioned

A newspaper editorial dealing with the subject of California high-speed rail ran in the Dec. 24, 2019 Los Angeles Daily News edition. Access to the full Daily News editorial can be had here. Discussed is the fifth and final phase or package of the construction program in the San Joaquin Valley or what is known … Read more

On-site pods give visitors first-hand look at air pollution, climate change effects at COP25

Interesting displays at this year’s 25th Conference of the Parties conference on global warming and climate change being held in Madrid, Spain, between Dec. 2nd and the 13th, are the air pollution and climate change pods that people can pass through enabling them to have a first-hand look at what 90 percent of the world’s … Read more

Measuring transpo. emissions: Per-mile or per-gallon of gas burned. Which is more useful and why it may matter

It’s no secret transportation emits more greenhouse gas pollutants (carbon mostly) than any other single sector and that emissions from transportation worldwide are on the rise. And, it should be no mystery either that for every gallon of gasoline burned in an internal combustion (IC) engine, 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide from said burning is … Read more

When it comes to railway-propulsion development, these are exciting times!

From wood and coal and oil (for steam generation) to electricity, gasoline, diesel, liquefied natural gas, linear induction, magnetic levitation, vacuum tube and hydrogen propulsion (did I miss any?) the world of train-power generation has experienced it all. What we’re talking about here are generations of train-propulsion techniques, some of which were tried but never … Read more

Are autonomous and/or electric vehicles the answer?

So, I spotted this Nov. 14, 2019 “StreetsBlog USA” headline “Prominent Democratic presidential candidates have all put forward plans for clean energy, limiting drilling and subsidies for electric vehicles. Yet they have nothing to say about Americans’ addiction to driving – and if they don’t wean Americans off cars, they’ll never meet climate goals.” A … Read more

U.S. transportation energy consumption: How high, low will it go?

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) way back on Jan. 24, 2019 released its Annual Energy Outlook 2019 with projections to 2050 (AEO2019) report. From a related press release, the EIA announced, “The AEO2019 Reference case projects that in 2020, for the first time in almost 70 years, the United States will export more energy … Read more

American drivers once averaged over 14K driving miles each: What it means

It’s incredible! We 221.71 million American motorists in 2016, with our roughly 268.8 million motor vehicles, each drove an average 14,317.7 miles. Meanwhile, in narrowing the focus, recent related Federal Highway Administration data show male drivers between ages 35 and 54 drive the most; in this case, a total annual average 18,858 miles, with the … Read more

Over concerns of oil industry smog-cleanup delay, conservation groups announce ‘intent to sue’ EPA

The fracked gas and oil industries are large contributors of photochemical smog. So says who? Well, for one, information on Wikipedia supports this finding. “The major culprits [to smog formation] from transportation are carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO and NOx), volatile organic compounds [VOC], and hydrocarbons [HC] (hydrocarbons are the main component of petroleum … Read more