government

Electric Cars: Are these Eco-Friendly Autos Really Silent Killers?

khallgeisler — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

Under cover of silence, they creep up on unwary pedestrians, inching ever forward on soundless, black tires, no internal-combustion engine to give them away. They are the latest urgent threat to prod Congress into lightning-quick action: hybrids cars and electric vehicles. Da-da-DAAAAH!

On Wednesday last week, the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives requiring the Trasportation Department to determine whether a minimum sound level for cars and trucks is needed. If they find we do need it, the Transportation Department will then set it. If it passes, automakers would have two years to comply with the minimum noise level. A similar bill was passed by the Maryland state senate and house last month.

The bill addresses the concern, as expressed by the National Federation of the Blind, that blind pedestrians in particular will not be aware of approaching electric-only motors. The bill's target seems off, though, since a better solution might be to improve crosswalks for everyone's use, including children, the elderly, and people with their iPods cranked to maximum who like to dance across the street.

EV and hybrid-car owners do share the NFB's concerns. Revisit this RiverWired.com post to read quotes from early EV adopters. Suggested sounds range from horse hooves to squealing tires. Others already use some kind of aural alert, like shouting "Hey! Hey! Hey!" with the window down or relying on the sound of a heat pump or whirring fan to alert people to their ninja-like presence.

Ninja image by Shawnimals.

Locavore Governments

scleaver — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:31:42 -0400

I recently came across a Governing Magazine article that peaked my interest. The article, Fresh Fight: Governments Want Local Food From Family Farmers on the Menu. It's Not Easy to Find. by Zach Patton shed light on how local governments are joining (or trying to join) the local food movement.

The article showcases Woodbury County, IA, a town in a state that’s a U.S. leader in production of pork, eggs, corn, and soybeans. Still, Woodbury officials have mandated that food bought by the county for use in its jail, juvenile detention facility, and cafeterias come from a 100-mile radius. Even in a region where it seems that every spare inch is used to grow food, large companies are farming the land, shipping the food they grow around the world, and imported, not local, food fills local grocery stores. All the while, family farms are going out of business. Currently, according to Governing, “Woodbury County residents spend about $250 million a year on groceries, and only 1 percent of that spending goes to local food.” Shifting more money into local food could bring $300,000 a year to local farms, so it’s no wonder that Woodbury County is jumping on board the local food movement. (Fun fact: “locavore” is now an official word in the New Oxford American Dictionary).

More and more local governments want to encourage local food, by increasing the number of farmers’ markets, setting up Food Policy Councils to create and strengthen local food chains, creating farm-to-school programs that connect growers with school cafeterias, and raising public awareness. (For example, Chicago started an Eat Local Live Healthy program that aims to increase fresh local produce in the city.)For governments, the benefits are more than nutritional: keeping food close to home keeps farmland viable, reduces suburban sprawl, boosts the local economy by keeping money spent on food circulating in the region instead of sending it across the country or overseas, and helps reduce the overall carbon footprint.

Local efforts are easily stymied by federal policies. If a city wants to increase farmer’s markets, for example, they may butt up against restrictive policies about food processing and cleanliness (livestock must be slaughtered in a federally inspected facility, and supervisors who are growing “organic” food must have a costly permit, for example). Many of these are mandated at the federal level, and small local farmers may not be able to comply. Obviously, state and local governments have a big part to play in the local food movements, what is your local government doing to get on the 100-mile diet?

For more about how Detroit is approaching this topic, check out this week's Metro Times Food Issue at www.metrotimes.com.

Photo Credit: A photo of my local farmer’s market the Downtown Rochester Farmers’ Market.

Tell CARB You're Not That Into Smog

khallgeisler — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:00:00 -0400

As anyone who watched the 2006 documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" knows, the California Air Resources Board really dropped the ball a few years ago regarding zero-emissions vehicles, especially electric cars. They're about to do it again.

On March 27, CARB will vote on a proposal to literally decimate the number of Zero-Emissions Vehicles in the state of California. Currently, California requires 25,000 of the cars on the road to be ZEVs, but the new proposal would lower that number to 2,500. As the Electric Auto Association points out, that would mean the six largest automakers who sell cars in this country only have to build a measly 850 ZEVs a year.

According to the EAA, CARB is making this move because auto manufacturers say they can't produce enough hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to meet the current number until 2012 or so. This is likely true; they could, however, be churning out electric vehicles to meet that number while we all wait for hydrogen technology to catch up.

Check out CARB's site for the full text of the proposal in seven not-so-easy-to-read PDFs. (They're written in that legalise we all love.) There's also an enlightening comments log, with entries from local businesses, electric vehicle groups, and regular, old, clean-air-lovin' citizens.

You may not think this has much to do with you if you don't live in California, but when it comes to environmental laws, California tends to be a bellweather for the rest of the country. It's a fight at least worth following. If you're amped to do more, the Electric Auto Association has contacts and sample scripts for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and CARB.

Photo by nahasopetalon.