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Louisiana’s flood couldn’t have been stopped, but it didn’t have to be so devastating

by JosephWesley Posted on August 22, 2016

Louisiana’s flood couldn’t have been stopped, but it didn’t have to be so devastating

By on Aug 22, 2016Share

Louisiana’s Amite river basin, which flooded and destroyed 60,000 homes earlier this month, is surrounded by deserted flood control projects that were begun after a massive flood in 1983. All that proposed infrastructure could have saved thousands of homes — but the Amite River Basin Commission left them either half-baked, or never started them in the first place.

As The Advocate reports, a proposed Comite River Diversion Canal may have saved “up to a quarter of homes damaged in the basin,” according to a government official. That’s just one of several pieces of infrastructure — including a reservoir and additional levees — that had been deemed unfeasible or simply “impractical.”

Worse, nothing was done to stop new housing from being built in the path of the old flood. Between 1980 and 2015, the number of people living in Livingston and Ascension, two parishes on the floodplain, went from 109,000 in 1980 to more than a quarter-million in 2015.

Climate change made this flood much worse than it would have been, but poor infrastructure and city planning are as much to blame for the devastation it caused.

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Louisiana’s flood couldn’t have been stopped, but it didn’t have to be so devastating

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EPA’s new rules are good for tech, and trucking

by SamZ114408 Posted on August 16, 2016

Trim Riggins

EPA’s new rules are good for tech, and trucking

By on Aug 16, 2016Share

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just finalized new standards for the biggest busters out on the road. We’re talking about trucks: the gassy behemoths that, despite making up 5 percent of overall road traffic, push out 20 percent of automotive emissions.

This is a big deal — both for the troposphere and for the lungs of anyone who lives near a popular truck hangout, like a freeway or a port. (That includes lots of people of color and low-income communities.)

It’s also a win for companies working on energy efficiency tech. The science to improve trucks’ fuel efficiency with features like hydraulic hybrid brakes and more aerodynamic cab styling already exists. But because fuel is currently cheap, the trucking industry has been slow to adopt changes like these.

The new rules also close a widely-used loophole that truckers used to evade earlier air quality standards by taking old engines — that emit 20 to 40 times more nitrogen oxides and particulate matter than modern diesel engines — and building new trucks around them. Truckers have until 2021 to get their rigs into compliance with the rest of the new regulations, but any sneaky switcheroo’ed engines have to be out earlier — by January 1, 2018.

Buying trucks that comply with the new standards will cost more upfront but, writes EPA, will save money in the long haul — about $170 billion worth. So, dry your tears, Teddy Bear: If all goes according to plan, you’ll be swimming in cash instead of particulate emissions.

Election Guide ★ 2016Making America Green AgainOur experts weigh in on the real issues at stake in this electionGet Grist in your inbox

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EPA’s new rules are good for tech, and trucking

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Electric cars are so popular we’re running out of plugs

by ElidaHuskz Posted on August 11, 2016

Plug Ugly

Electric cars are so popular we’re running out of plugs

By on Aug 11, 2016Share

In Los Angeles, there are approximately 20 electric vehicles for every public electric car charger. In a fair and just world, that ratio should be more like four to one, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power told Utility Dive. But as things stand, L.A. Water and Power has some of the most heavily used car chargers in the state.

And this isn’t just true in L.A. — similar situations in other cities confirm that we’re staring down a plug shortage.

Faced with a world of cutthroat plug competition, many electric car owners choose to charge at home. But home charging often means that electric cars are pulling energy from the electrical grid during the time it’s used most heavily — i.e., nighttime hours when commuters come home, make dinner, watch The Bachelor in Paradise, have living room disco parties, et cetera. If electric cars could charge all day, they could actually help the grid work more efficiently.

A hundred years ago, drivers of gasoline-powered cars were in the same fix — gas stations were few and far between. Less than 1 percent of cars on the road are electric right now. But when that percentage gets higher, then we’ll see a serious plug boom.

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Electric cars are so popular we’re running out of plugs

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