Tag Archives: road

Quote of the Day: FCC Chair Pretends to Change Course on Net Neutrality

by TerranceTimperl Posted on May 12, 2014

Mother Jones

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From an anonymous FCC official:

There is a wide feeling on the eighth floor that this is a debacle and I think people would like to see a change of course. We may not agree on the course, but we agree the road we’re on is to disaster.

The debacle in question is the proposal by FCC chair Tom Wheeler that would gut net neutrality by allowing big companies to pay ISPs for faster internet service. Wheeler’s proposal has provoked a massive backlash, and he’s now promising revisions:

The new language by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to be circulated as early as Monday is an attempt to address criticism of his proposal….In the new draft, Mr. Wheeler is sticking to the same basic approach but will include language that would make clear that the FCC will scrutinize the deals to make sure that the broadband providers don’t unfairly put nonpaying companies’ content at a disadvantage, according to an agency official.

….An agency official said the draft would also seek comment on whether such agreements, called “paid prioritization,” should be banned outright, and look to prohibit the big broadband companies, such as Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc., from doing deals with some content companies on terms that they aren’t offering to others.

Mr. Wheeler’s language will also invite comments on whether broadband Internet service should be considered a public utility, which would subject it to greater regulation. The FCC has so far not reclassified broadband as a utility, and providers have fiercely opposed such a move, saying it would cause innovation and investment to collapse.

Color me unimpressed. A promise that the FCC will “scrutinize” deals is basically worthless, and inviting comments on reclassifying broadband internet service will lead nowhere if Wheeler himself doesn’t support it—which he doesn’t. This looks mostly like smoke and mirrors to me.

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Quote of the Day: FCC Chair Pretends to Change Course on Net Neutrality

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This Weekend, Yet Another "60 Minutes" Screw-Up

by DaniloBeet Posted on April 1, 2014

Mother Jones

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On Sunday I watched 60 Minutes and caught their segment about the Tesla Model S. They had some footage of the car zipping along the road, and I was surprised by the throaty rumble it made while it was accelerating. It’s an electric car, after all. It shouldn’t sound like a Corvette.

Please note: I am, at best, a minor league car guy. I know very little about cars. But the sound of the Tesla S immediately drew my attention. Yesterday, 60 Minutes said it was all a mistake:

Our video editor made an audio editing error in our report about Elon Musk and Tesla last night. We regret the error and it is being corrected online.

This is not really believable. If I noticed this, then a minimum of dozens of people who worked on this segment would have noticed it. Besides, where did the V8-audio come from? Did the video editor just “accidentally” pull some off the shelf and mix it in? Repeatedly?

WTF is going on with 60 Minutes these days?

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This Weekend, Yet Another "60 Minutes" Screw-Up

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What the State of the Union Missed

by Posted on January 29, 2014

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What the State of the Union Missed

Posted 29 January 2014 in

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Viewers of last night’s State of the Union address got the impression that President Obama supports an “all of the above” approach to America’s energy policy. But despite this rhetoric, the President’s own Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to cut back on renewable fuel in 2014 by slashing obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard. This proposal threatens severe economic and environmental effects: drivers will pay billions in increased fuel costs, oil companies stand to increase their profits by more than $10 billion and, according to a recent analysis, 30 million additional metric tons of carbon dioxide will be released into the air as a result of increased petroleum consumption. That’s the equivalent of 5,600,000 more cars on the road.

By signaling a retreat on renewable fuel, the Administration is also threatening the immense progress the industry has made toward commercialization of advanced fuels like cellulosic ethanol. This map, based on data from the Biotechnology Industry Organization, details 68 facilities and more than $5.9 billion of investment in the fuels of tomorrow:

We hope the Administration and the EPA listen to the thousands of comments sent by farm families, small business owners, labor groups and environmental advocates in defense of renewable fuel and revise their proposal for the sake of a clean energy future.

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What the State of the Union Missed

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Frackers are chewing up Pennsylvania’s forests

by u60uurf Posted on October 1, 2013

Frackers are chewing up Pennsylvania’s forests

By

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Roads carved through Pennsylvania’s forests cause habitat fragmentation and reduce biodiversity.

Frackers don’t just foul the air and the water — they trample nature and carve up ecosystems into inadequate little pieces.

That’s the message coming out of the U.S. Geological Survey, which studied aerial photographs of a handful of Pennsylvania counties where gas companies are using hydraulic fracturing to tap deposits in  the Marcellus Shale. The survey’s analysis revealed sweeping damage and forests fragmented by new well pads, roads, and pipelines.

Jason Bell, a member of Marcellus Outreach Butler, told the Valley News Dispatch that the new study offers yet another example of why more careful regulation of the fracking boom is needed. “Often we don’t get a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening,” he said. “It’s easy to see one or two wells and think it’s having isolated effects.”

Here’s what the boom looks like when viewed from above. “Before” shots are on the left, “after” on the right:

USGSExamples of how drilling permits have led to the fragmentation of habitat in Pennsylvania’s Washington County. Click to embiggen.

In Butler County alone, the study found that fracking and conventional drilling — and the road-building required to service 109 drilling sites — had disturbed 325 acres of forest by 2010. Compared to a decade earlier, there were 36 more patches of forest in the county, and the average size of each patch was smaller — a change that the researchers said was mostly due to the drilling boom.

Even Beaver County, which is relatively untouched by frackers save for a couple drilling sites in its northeastern corner, endured 13 acres of disruption during the same period. Forests in Lackawanna and Wayne counties were also heavily affected by fracking despite being home to a small number of drilling wells.

It’s not just the acreage of disturbance that causes concern. It’s what all that drilling and road building do to the forests in between. Whenever habitat is broken up into smaller pieces, the theory of island biogeography tells us that the area’s biodiversity plummets. That’s because some wildlife can only survive deep in the woods — far away from its edges.

“Landscape disturbance can have a major impact on ecological resources and the services they provide,” USGS researcher Lesley Milheim said in a statement.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

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Frackers are chewing up Pennsylvania’s forests

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The White House goes solar — again

by 2lgax8lh Posted on August 15, 2013

The White House goes solar — again

By Claire Thompson

350.org

350.org makes the case for solar panels on the White House in 2010.

Nearly three years after the Obama administration promised to install solar panels on the White House roof, the plan is finally moving ahead. A White House official confirmed today that installment of American-made solar panels has begun. Bill McKibben, whose climate-action group 350.org led the original push to get the panels up, called the news “better late than never.”

In October 2010, then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that by the end of spring 2011, “there will be solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House.” The failure of those features to materialize provoked criticism from environmentalists, who saw it as symbolic of Obama’s larger lack of follow-through on sustainability goals.

350.org

Jimmy Carter with the original White House solar panels.

The recent campaign for a solar-powered White House wasn’t an original idea. Way back in 1979 — before global warming became a household phrase — President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels that graced the White House roof until 1986, when President Ronald Reagan had them removed (ugh). The Washington Post reports:

In 1979, Carter had predicted the solar water heater and panels on the White House grounds will ”either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”

For awhile, it was the lack of those panels that symbolized the road not taken. Climate activists hoped their reappearance would point the way back. Here’s McKibben in June 2011:

A year ago, some of us decided it would be a great symbol of commitment — kind of a renewal of vows — if Obama would put solar panels on top of the White House, just the way Jimmy Carter had done … After all, this was something he could do all on his own, without even having to ask the Congress. And who doesn’t like solar panels?

No word on what caused the big delay in fulfillment of Chu’s 2010 promise. Neither has it yet been revealed which company the panels are coming from, although in 2010 Chu had said the White House would hold a competitive bidding process to buy 20 to 50 panels.

The solar panels are only part of larger efficiency upgrades to the White House, The Hill reports:

“The retrofit will include the installation of energy-saving equipment, such as updated building controls and variable speed fans, as well as solar generation. The project will help demonstrate that historic buildings can incorporate solar energy and energy efficiency upgrades,” the White House official said.

Let’s hope that this time, the panels stay put.

Editor’s note: McKibben serves on Grist’s board of directors.

Claire Thompson is an editorial assistant at Grist.

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The White House goes solar — again

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Start – Jon Acuff

by Myrna Posted on May 2, 2013

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Start

Jon Acuff

Genre: Self-Improvement

Price: $9.99

Publish Date: April 18, 2013

Publisher: New Day Christian

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Wall Street Journal best-selling author Jon Acuff reveals the steps to getting unstuck and back onto the path of being awesome. Over the last 100 years, the road to success for most everyone has been divided into predictable stages. But three things have changed the path to success: Boomers are realizing that a lot of the things they were promised aren’t going to materialize, and they have started second and third careers. Technology has given access to an unprecedented number of people who are building online empires and changing their lives in ways that would have been impossible years ago. The days of “success first, significance later,” have ended. While none of the stages can be skipped, they can be shortened and accelerated. There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Start gives readers practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.

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New gasoline rules are good for your lungs and bad for Big Oil

by Laura Posted on March 29, 2013

New gasoline rules are good for your lungs and bad for Big Oil

By John Upton

Shutterstock

/ Tyler OlsonLess sulfur in gasoline means less tailpipe pollution.

Oh, tough break for the oil industry. The Obama administration today will propose new rules that will help curb smog by cracking down on sulfur in gasoline.

“This is the first big environmental initiative in the Obama administration’s second term,” said Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch.

Automakers and everybody who breathes will benefit from the new EPA rules, which will require refineries to produce gasoline containing no more than 10 parts per million of sulfur. The EPA currently allows up to 30 ppm.

Sulfur is a problem in gasoline because it reduces the performance of catalytic convertors. That, in turn, lowers efficiency and boosts tailpipe emissions that contribute to smog and soot.

From The Washington Post:

The proposed standards would add less than a penny a gallon to the cost of gasoline while delivering an environmental benefit akin to taking 33 million cars off the road, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made yet.

Oil industry officials, however, said the cost would be at least double the administration’s estimate and could add up to 9 cents a gallon in some places.

The proposed standards, which had been stuck in regulatory limbo since 2011, would reduce the amount of sulfur in U.S. gasoline by two-thirds and impose fleet-wide pollution limits on new vehicles by 2017.

The Obama administration’s decision to go ahead with the regulations deals a political blow to the oil and gas industry, which had mobilized dozens of lawmakers in recent days to lobby the White House for a one-year delay.

It’s a sad day for the oil companies. Sharing in their misery are congressional Republicans. From Reuters:

Republican lawmakers had tried to stop the rules. Ed Whitfield, the chair of the House Energy and Power subcommittee, introduced a bill last year to stop the EPA from issuing the Tier 3 measures.

But don’t let that get you down — not everybody is bummed.

[H]ealth groups say the rules will cut billions in doctors’ bills. A study released by Navigant Consulting last year said the rules could cut healthcare costs for lung and heart diseases by $5 billion to $6 billion a year by 2020 and double that by 2030. …

The rules are supported by many automakers who want regulatory certainty and for federal rules to be harmonized with strict regulations in California. The Auto Alliance, a group of 12 manufacturers, has said cutting sulfur content in gasoline has side benefits including improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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E.U. car efficiency info may be more ‘creative’ than accurate

by 2KeaheySchoeffler461 Posted on March 14, 2013

E.U. car efficiency info may be more ‘creative’ than accurate

By Susie Cagle

When it comes to legit auto fuel-economy data, a new report suggests there may be some sugar in the gas tank.

Activist group Transport & Environment says European car makers are consistently “optimizing” their cars’ performances on fuel efficiency and emissions tests, i.e. cheating. Overall, T&E estimates that European car manufacturers are falsely claiming their cars are 25 to 50 percent more efficient than they really are.

“It’s lots and lots of small tweaks,” T&E’s Greg Archer told the BBC. “And they all add up.”

The report accuses car-makers of all sorts of MacGyver-like fuel-efficiency tricks used just during testing: taping up tiny cracks around doors and windows to reduce air resistance; lightening their cars; using special lubricants; slicking up test tracks; and stopping the car’s battery from recharging. “Creative, but legal,” according to The Guardian.

Transport & EnvironmentClick to embiggen.

All that alleged trickery adds up to car drivers thinking they’re getting a more efficient, cheaper vehicle, and officials thinking they’re getting lower emissions and a cleaner environment. From The Guardian:

Greg Archer … says: “This new evidence shows that carmakers in Europe are cheating their own customers by manipulating official tests, which leads to thousands of euros of additional fuel costs for drivers.

“They are also cheating legislators, as EU laws intended to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and vans are only being met in the laboratory, not on the road. The only way to rebuild this trust is by closing loopholes in the current test procedures, to ensure that cheaters never prosper.” …

Raw mileage and emission data is not made public by European carmakers, who only advertise combined figures of laboratory and other tests done on new cars. T&E says it obtained the data on the condition it did not identify the models or manufacturers. Data in the report for the “real world” driving by the public was obtained from online fuel mileage calculators and databases, including Spritmonitor.de, which allows drivers to compare their experiences with million of others.

T&E is calling for new rules that would close testing loopholes. If car companies really have advanced MacGyver skills, now would be a good time to practice. Maybe not for this kind of test drive, though.

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Motor vehicle deaths rose 5 percent in 2012

by greenenergy4 Posted on February 20, 2013

Motor vehicle deaths rose 5 percent in 2012

By Philip Bump

A hopefully non-fatal accident.

The National Safety Council yesterday released its estimates of 2012 motor-vehicle deaths in the United States. And: bad news. From the report [PDF]:

Motor-vehicle deaths up 5% in 2012.

Motor-vehicle deaths in 2012 totaled 36,200, up 5% from 2011 and marking the first annual increase since 2004 to 2005. The 2012 estimate is provisional and may be revised when more data are available. The total for 2012 was also up 2% from the 2010 figure. … The estimated annual population death rate is 11.49 deaths per 100,000 population, an increase of 4% from the 2011 rate. The estimated annual mileage death rate is 1.23 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, an increase of 4% from the 2011 rate. …

The estimated cost of motor-vehicle deaths, injuries, and property damage in 2012 was $276.6 billion, a 5% increase from 2011. The costs include wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses, employer costs, and property damage.

The deadliest month on the roads was July, followed by August and June. The safest: February — not a surprise, since it’s the shortest month.

The NSC also provided state-by-state data, which is revealing. Last November, we looked at a report suggesting that red states were more likely to experience traffic deaths. That report used preliminary data — but the data released yesterday seems to reinforce the idea. You wouldn’t notice it looking at the raw, per-state data, however.

Speaking of:

Deaths per month

Darker shades mean higher overall numbers. Not surprisingly, states with larger populations have more road deaths. (There was no data for Vermont.) This doesn’t tell us very much.

Population per road death per month

In the map above, a lighter color means a bigger number, which is good — it suggests that there are fewer road deaths as a function of population. Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, New Mexico, and the South have more road deaths by population than many other states — reinforcing the link between red states and traffic deaths. New York’s rate of death as a function of population is relatively low.

Rate of change since 2011

Darker shades mean an increase in the number of deaths; lighter shades mean a decrease. Interestingly, the Northeast has seen a larger increase in the number of road deaths than many other regions. Two adjacent states saw the biggest changes — South Dakota went up, Wyoming went down — but this is largely because they have small populations, making percentages more volatile.

The moral of the story is this: If you don’t want to die in a car accident, move to New York. Or go back in time to 2011. Or don’t leave the house. All viable options.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Cyclists are the happiest of us all

by gerdi Posted on February 1, 2013

Cyclists are the happiest of us all

By Susie Cagle

Shutterstock

Wheeeeee!

Despite getting run over, doored, harassed, and generally being treated as second-class citizens of the road, bicyclists are the happiest of all commuters. Go figure!

The finding comes via an Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium study released this month. Those who walk to work, the study found, are nearly as happy as cyclists, who are about three times happier than solo car-drivers.

Of course, your commute happiness is improved if you’re on your way to a good job that makes you a lot of money, but income gap aside, even rich workaholic bikers still had safety concerns that chipped away at their smile scores.

New York Daily News columnist Denis Hamill sees your safety concerns, cyclists, and he raises you a head injury, because that’s the only explanation I have for Hamil’s ragey column on New York’s bike lanes that, he says, have “disfigured the city in a logistical and aesthetic way.”

Writes Hamil: “News flash: Life ain’t a smooth sail, kiddos! There’s a big crash just waiting at the end of every bike lane.”

Don’t let this grump get you down, bikers, especially if you live in New York and enjoy those protected bike lanes (jealous!). It’s evening rush hour in the city right now, and something tells me Hamil is road-raging all alone in his car.

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