Transportation
Banishing Cars From Broadway Revives Midtown Manhattan
Published August 26, 2009 @ 05:46PM PT
How do you make cities safer for pedestrians, more pleasant for cyclists, and more conducive to healthy civic life? And cut greenhouse gas emissions in the process?
Just break the grip of "Carmageddon" and let a few streets live free of cars.
This video from Streetfilms takes you on a tour of New York City's newly car-free blocks of Broadway. Far from creating a traffic nightmare as predicted by naysayers, the city's move to close sections of Broadway to traffic has succeeded wildly.
Even businesses, which hated the idea, are benefitting, now that delivery trucks can actually do deliveries, instead of sitting mired in traffic.
Over a Dozen Senators Working to Strengthen Climate Bill
Published August 25, 2009 @ 07:31PM PT
Related post: Citizenship 101: How to contact Congress
Although four senators recently floated the idea that climate legislation was dead in the Senate, over a dozen of their colleagues are working on measures to make it stronger.
According to the progressive political blog Wonk Room,
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has introduced the IMPACT Act, "Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology Act of 2009," which would create a $30 million revolving loan fund to "help small and medium-sized manufacturers finance retooling, shift design, and improve energy efficiency.” The act has been added to the Senate legislation, and over 150 businesses around the country have endorsed it.
Sen. Brown has been joined by nine other Democratic senators in urging President Obama to be sure the legislation includes strong support for American manufacturing. They include Russ Feingold (D-WI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Robert Casey (D-PA), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Robert Byrd (D-VW), Al Franken (D-MN), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Tom Carper (D-DE) are working on adding language to the bill to “regulate power plant emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.”
Sen. Carper is also seeking to improve the bill's funding for cleaner transportation. His Clean, Low-Emission, Affordable, New Transportation Efficiency Act (S. 575 / H.R. 1329) would allocate a share of the proceeds from carbon cap-and-trade "to transit, bike paths, and other green modes of transport.” Co-sponsoring the bill are Senators Arlen Specter (D-PA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Ben Cardin (D-MD) have co-sponsored the legislation.
Bicycle-Through: Cycling mom Twitters, gets burger chain to change policy
Published August 21, 2009 @ 01:35PM PT
They call it "drive-through" for a reason -- or so "family bicycling evangelist" Sarah Gilbert learned on August 12, when she was refused service at a fast-food restaurant for being on a bicycle in the drive-through lane.
But she didn't just get mad; she got online, and prompted the company to change its drive-through lane policy for the better.
As the self-selected moniker of "evangelist" might suggest, Sarah Gilbert doesn't simply not own a car; she's affirmatively chosen to not own a car. Gilbert instead transports her three sons, ages 2, 4 and 7, around Portland, Ore. on a custom-built stretch bicycle, which is adorned with the bumper sticker "One Less Minivan." And she'd been served just a few weeks earlier at the very same Burgerville restaurant that was now turning down her order for four cheeseburgers.
So when she got home, Gilbert took action: She posted an exasperated criticism of the restaurant on Twitter -- "burgerville on 26th/powell turned me on my bike away from drivethrough, and not nicely at all, tho i've biked thru before. #bikeunfriendly?" -- wrote the company a letter, and posted the letter on her blog.
One twist to the story is that Burgerville, a regional fast-food chain, wears its eco-conscious heart on its sleeve. The company buys all its power green; uses regional ingredients in season (oh, how I miss those Oregon-grown-blackberry shakes and Walla Walla onion rings since I moved back east); and recycles its cooking oil into biodiesel.
Within hours, Burgerville Twittered back to Gilbert: "Hi Sarah, We noticed your concerns and will be contacting you shortly via direct message. Thank you."
Two days later, Burgerville announced its plan to formally allow people on bicycles to order and pick up food in each and every one of the chain's 39 drive-through lanes.
On its own, this is a small-impact change on the larger canvas of sustainability (making it easier and more practical to live without a car) -- until you multiply your Sarah Gilberts by hundreds or thousands of American cities, and the thousands of businesses they can have an impact on.
"It is not even that I believe I, as a cyclist or mama of three or cute redhead or denizen of Southeast Portland, have an entitlement to fast food ordered through a speaker, paid for and delivered through a window," writes Gilbert. "But it is a symbol: of bike-friendliness. Of responsiveness. Of the power of words. Of rationality. Of a local company whose chief cultural officer is obviously not just a cute title.
"I don't really enjoy the world the way it is. I want the windows opened, the barriers taken down, people to get around more slowly and to talk more. I want it to be easier to smile at someone else. I want it to be harder not to know your neighbor. I want it to be safer, lovelier, more ordinary to ride your bike."
(Hat tip to JM)
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Image via Sarah Gilbert's blog entry of March 10, 2009
Fatalistic Friday: 'Cash for Clunkers' could save 16 mpg Hummer
Published July 24, 2009 @ 11:02AM PT
Source: failblog
It's been an unusually fertile week for apocalypcious news, so let's dive right in:
'Cash For Clunkers' Program Could Boost Hummer: People who trade in their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars can get a government subsidy -- even if they trade in old pickups for ones that get just 2 miles per gallon more. Which means the program could provide an unexpected boost to the beleaguered Hummer brand. Its H3T pickup gets 16 mpg. (NPR)
Related:
Cash for Clunkers: Compare the fuel savings (Consumer Reports)
Cars.gov, the official cash for clunkers website
Energy companies opened wallets wide to sway house climate bill: Electric utilities boosted lobbying in the second quarter of 2009, narrowing the gap with oil and gas companies that had dominated spending on persuasion by a wide margin earlier this year. (Greenwire/The New York Times)
Grist grades senate websites on climate transparency; flunks some: Grist combed the Web sites of 99 senators and issued report cards grading them on how well they explained the senators' positions on climate change and energy. "The results aren't pretty. We found a distinct lack of information among Democrats and Republicans alike, senators with and without strong environmental voting records, and from all regions of the country." (Grist)
Meet Belcha - Europe's biggest carbon polluter (and it's about to get even bigger): The biggest single producer of carbon emissions in the European Union has been named - and it is about to get even bigger. The appropriately titled Elektrownia Belchatow - a massive coal-fired power station - belched out 30,862,792 tonnes of CO2 last year and by 2010 the whole generating facility will have grown by 20%. (The Guardian)
Sea Ice Melting Faster Than Expected: A NASA study finds that Arctic ice is melting at a rate that scientists didn't anticipate. (Environment Report)
Massive Glacier In Sub-Antarctic Island Shrinks By A Fifth: French scientists say satellites show a glacier on a southern Indian Ocean island shrunk dramatically in recent decades. They think global warming may be a factor. (AFP)
Warmest june on record for global ocean surface temperature: The world's ocean surface temperature in June rose to its warmest since 1880, breaking the previous high mark set in 2005, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville. (Environment News Service)
Arctic Mystery: Identifying The Great Blob Of Alaska: The mysterious, miles-long "blob" found floating in the Chukchi Sea is not an oil spill or alien life-form, according to early tests, but an unusual algal bloom. (TIME)
Caribou Populations Fall Sharply: Scientists are finding what seems to be a global decline in caribou populations, due to global warming (Christian Science Monitor)
Shrinking fish, dying sequoias, rampant tomato fungus, and more after the jump.
Suggest a story to Stop Global Warming
Published July 10, 2009 @ 08:01AM PT
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Obama Admin. Approves California's Tailpipe Emissions Rule
Published June 30, 2009 @ 08:29PM PT
After five years of uncertainty, California has gotten the green light to set tougher standards for greenhouse gas pollution from automobiles than those set by the federal government.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced this afternoon that it would grant the "California waiver" to federal fuel economy standards. This clears the road for the Golden State to implement immediately a 2002 state law requiring new cars and trucks to raise fuel economy 40 percent, to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon, by 2016.
President Obama wants the same standard nationwide by 2016, four years sooner than Congress mandated as part of a 2007 energy law.
"This decision puts the law and science first," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement. "After review of the scientific findings, and another comprehensive round of public engagement, I have decided this is the appropriate course under the law."
Jackson was very likely zinging her Bush-appointed predecessor, Stephen Johnson, for breaking with traditional interpretations of the use of the Clean Air Act, as well as the agency's history of granting the waiver, when he denied California the right to implement its law in 2008.
Jackson's approval of the waiver isn't surprising, but the impact is significant: it overturns one of the Bush administration major roadblocks for states in combatting global warming. Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Colombia, all intend to apply California's standard.
Writing in The New York Times "Wheels" blog, Jim Motavalli reports that automakers appear to have collectively shrugged their shoulders at the announcement:
“This issue was largely decided when the Obama administration announced a single national program,” said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. “Last month’s agreement settled the question of who would set future fuel economy and greenhouse-gas standards.”
It's good news that the California waiver has been granted. Now the question is why a mere 35.5 mpg seven years from now is the goal. Technologies already exist on the global automobile market -- like Toyota's third-gen Prius hybrid -- that get 50 miles per gallon or more.
Obama Announces Stricter -- but Uniform -- Auto Fuel and Emissions Rules
Published May 19, 2009 @ 10:22AM PT
President Obama has just announced the proposed new, federal auto emissions and mileage standards that will hike fuel efficiency and and decrease greenhouse gas pollution across the nation's entire consumer vehicle fleet.
At a Rose Garden press conference, Mr. Obama stressed that such an agreement would have been considered impossible in the recent past. President Obama lauded the various interests -- including 10 automakers, the United Auto Workers union, the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the state of California -- for uniting behind the federal effort to both improve and unify fuel-efficiency and emissions rules.
The president evoked themes from his run for the White House -- highlighting the need to change the status quo. With just 5 percent of the world's population, the US demands around 25 percent of its oil every year, he noted. This leaves the nation exposed to volatile oil markets, creates a trade deficit, and sends billions of dollars to oil-exporting nations that are not always in political step with the nation's policies and goals. And burning all that oil is contributing to changing the climate -- creating greater fires and droughts, sea level rise, and other disastrous impacts.
Despite understanding all these problems since the 1970s, the nation has allowed a sense of ugency to rise and fade, he said, with little improvement in car and truck efficiency for decades -- echoing his comments near the end of last about the nation's cycle of going from "shock to trance" on confronting its oil dependency. He described a much more upbeat vision of America, in which the nation and the people are able to unite around common efforts to solve tough, long-term problems.
The new federal fuel-efficiency and emissions rules will harmonize three standards that, automakers claimed, would cost them billions to meet: the Department of Transportation's fuel economy requirements; the EPA's mandate under the Supreme Court's Mass. v EPA decision to slash greenhouse gas emissions using the Clean Air Act; and the strict auto emissions standards desired by the state of California, which 13 states and DC have said they would adopt if the Golden State were granted a waiver to impose them by the EPA.
Both federal agencies will follow the new standards; California has agreed to support them as well, effectively rendering its request for a waiver from the federal standards moot, and ending a multi-year standoff with the federal government to impose them. And all 10 automakers have agreed to drop their lawsuits in federal court against tougher standards -- a reflection of the financial stake the U.S. government now holds in the business doings of Big Auto.
Mr. Obama stressed that the new uniform federal rules will provide automakers "a clear certainty" in how to plan ahead for new car models, helping to stabilize and restore ailing US firms.
Highlights of the new fuel-efficiency and emissions standards:
- Car, light truck, and SUV fuel efficiency will improve five percent per year between 2012 and 2106
- Entire US consumer fleet will meet average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 -- surpassing the standard enacted in 2007 of 35 mpg by 2020
- Oil consumption for personal auto transportation expected to decrease by 1.8 billion barrels over the lifetime of the program -- the equivalent of taking 177 milllion of today's cars off the road, or as much oil as the US imported in 2008 from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, and two other nations combined
- Tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases will be cut by 900 million metric tons
- Consumers can expect to make back higher purchase costs within three years, thanks to lowering fuel consumption, says the White House and to save $2800 over the lifetime of the vehicle
- The U.S. will make strategic financial investments in developing cleaner auto energy technologies
Mr. Obama ended the press conference calling for unity in efforts to curb fossil energy use and address global waming, including the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill currently being debated in House committee, and the clean energy and smart grid investments under the recovery act. He took an unusually frank stance (for political leaders in general, less Mr. Obama in particular) by noting that ending dependence on fossil fuels and "an economy that runs on oil," while maintaining a healthy degree of prosperity, represent the most difficult challenge the nation has ever faced.
This effort will take time, he said, and a joint commitment by government, industry, and political parties to refuse to continue past failures and instead unify around common goals for energy independence and a cleaner environment.
"Everything is possible when we're working together," concluded President Obama, "and we're off to a great start."
