Posted on 04/28/2002 8:00:00 AM PDT by Dog Gone
ONCE upon a time, the picturesque university town of Cambridge, England, decided it had too many cars. To remedy the situation, it placed bicycles all over town, free for anyone to use.
The experiment sounded good, but it failed. The bikes were stolen and vandalized.
Sometimes an idea that seems good for the environment doesn't work in the real world. Take the notion of using alternative fuels to increase fuel economy. For years environmentalists and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have grown increasingly strident in their demands that we must have vehicles that get greater fuel economy. At the same time they have been insisting that we replace gasoline with cleaner-burning alternative fuels. Most frequently mentioned are compressed natural gas, or CNG, and liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG.
But the EPA and environmentalists have known all along a dirty little secret: You can't have both. Unfortunately, it's an either-or situation -- either alternative fuels or higher mileage. This is spelled out very clearly in a joint EPA, Department of Energy publication, "Model Year 2002 Fuel Economy Guide." It lists mileage ratings for nearly all American-made and many foreign cars and light trucks sold in the United States.
The numbers are very revealing. A typical example is the mileage ratings for the Ford F-150, for decades the most popular light truck in the country.
According to the EPA/DOE guide, the gasoline-powered version of the F-150 with a 4-speed automatic transmission and 5.4-liter V-8 engine gets 15 miles per gallon in city driving and 19 mpg on the highway.
Same truck, same engine, same transmission, powered by CNG is rated at just 12 mpg city and 16 mpg highway -- 20 and 16 percent less, respectively.
The same truck in a bi-fuel model that can burn gasoline or CNG performs even worse: 11 mpg city and 14 mpg highway. Those are mileage reductions of 27 and 26 percent from the gasoline-powered model.
Mileage takes a big hit in the bi-fuel model built for gasoline and LPG, too: 12 mpg city and dramatically low 13 mpg highway -- 21 percent below the gasoline-powered version.
Automotive experts, such as Robert Brooks of the prestigious auto-industry publication "Wards Engine and Vehicle Technology Update," point out that the poor mileage of these alternatives is to be expected.
In simple terms, they say that CNG and LPG contain less energy per gallon than gasoline and it is the energy contained in the fuel, not just the fuel itself, that moves you down the road. They point out that a similar, though less severe, reduction in mileage is caused by adding the "alternative fuel" ethanol to gasoline.
Dramatically expanded use of ethanol is advocated by both Republican and Democratic leaders, in an effort to appeal to the farm vote. Ethanol is made from corn. The fact remains, you can't have it both ways: It's higher mileage or alternative fuels.
There is a second little secret about these alternative fuels: They come from wells: in many cases, the same wells from which we get oil. Oil that we use to make gasoline. Wells that environmentalists don't want us to drill.
Could the real secret be that environmentalists just don't want us to drive cars at all? No ... to anyone paying attention, that's not a secret.
Randall is director of the John P. McGovern Center for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs at the National Center for Public Policy Research, in Washington, D.C.
Thank you for the reply to my questions.
1. Safety (boom).
2. Cost of production. You consume more energy producing it than you get from burning it.
Welcome to my world. We here in Massachusetts have been on the ridiculously expensive and strict emissions testing scheme for 3 or 4 years now. If your vehicle doesn't have all wheel drive, it must be put on a Dynamometer and run up to 40 mph while being tested. Costs us 30 bucks and takes 30 minutes. It's even more expensive if it doesn't pass.
The first is simple logic. "Mileage" as a measure of "cleanness" is not revelant unless the fuels are very similar. As an example buring LPG may not produce the same amount of "dirty exhaust components" per gallon of fuel than let's say gasoline produces.
Second, there are conventional, gasoline powered cars that produce milage in excess of the 35city/40highway that the greens desire. These cars are ideal for the typical commuter application and seat 4 adults comfortably for trips under two hours. Their use is a matter of public will not government policy.
The answer for greater fuel efficiency might lie in our space program fuels.
Ammonium perchlorate (AP) comes to mind; it's the oxidizing agent in composite solid propellants for rockets, booster motors and missiles -- rather dangerous in collisions, though.
Regardless of your passion your statement fails the logic test.
Logically we must conclude from your statement that the populus will go without a car if they are forced to drive "little tuna cans".
Logic dictates that the populus will grudgingly drive little tuna cans if the more popular alternatives are not economically feasible.
Bikes take energy to move, just as all vehicles do. The calories expended in riding have to be taken in as food, which then adds to all the other parts of the pollution cycle you've outlined.
And then there's the emissions of greenhouse gas . .
(But we don't need to go to that detail.)
And since we can't expect people to just get something for nothing, all the government will ask in return is that these people vote them back into office.
Oh, wait, Democrats already do that. Never mind.
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