Re: Mr. Smith Goes to Leavenworth

Jill — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:34:17 -0000

Among the FBI press-release "facts" is a big, obvious mistake in the headline: it's Steve Brown, not Mark Brown.

Re: Fuels to Keep the Cars Running Still Many Years Off

Jill — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:44:23 -0000

Very good point about not being able to grow our way off of fossil fuels with corn ethanol. More walking and biking and mass transit are usually the first things people point to, and while these are important steps, they call for major shifts in the daily habits of millions of people all over the country. I find that to be noble but unrealistic--at least achieving numbers that would make a difference.

What we need are solutions that can be accomplished by leadership and policy changes. Such as? The first and biggest step we can take to reduce our oil consumption is to ensure that all new vehicles use less gasoline--or less of whatever fuel they burn. Investments in fuel-efficiency logically precede investments in new fuels. Automakers have had the technological know-how for years, but with cheap gas prices, there was no consumer demand. Hybrids that run on gasoline and electricity are one obvious exception, and they've been a fast-growing sector of the market since 2000. You can't swing a cat at Whole Foods without hitting a Prius these days. But there are many other, less expensive technologies as well.

We should expect automakers to give us vehicles to get at least 35 miles per gallon in the very near future. We simply cannot continue to consume oil at today's pace.

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Re: Mr. Smith Goes to Leavenworth

Re: Fuels to Keep the Cars Running Still Many Years Off