Every time I’m tempted to write the phrase “never ceases to amaze”, I’m forced to stop myself.
The accounts of western governments (from the local to the federal) kneecapping the very infrastructure upon which modern metropolitan life depends – including reliable electricity, food production, and the transport of essential goods – are so routine now, one can hardly keep track;
Friday eight appointed members of the [California] air board voted to adopt the so called ‘Truck Rule’, which mandates that nearly a million diesel trucks and busses be equipped with a smog filtering device or replaced outright.
[…]
State officials say they have loan programs available to help companies replace their trucks, but Mike Kubar says it’s a racket. He says the state program offers about 50 thousand dollars for trucks that cost upwards of 125k.
And that means a trip to the bank for a huge loan.
“Once you’re in debt, once you sign that piece of paper, and if I don’t have business, then we are deep trouble, he said.
The new regulations start going into effect in 2010 and will phase in over a period of 13 years.
The sweeping new law also applies to trucks registered in other states that drive into California
The day may not be long off when interstate truckers just drop their goods at the border
and let Californians pack them in by mule. The one I’d suggest is January 1, 2010.
h/t Shaken
OK, now I get it. Jack is the new “new”, actually I think he may be the old new. Nothing new here to ignore.
remember CBCpravda was encouraging the 100Km challenge.
sounds great , except when you live in Canada. say Churchill when you would be reduced to eating polar bear. or any city of over 100,000 which would be gleaning the countryside on that limit.
the idiocy of CBCpravda and Dr. Mengele Susuki who suggested farming methods al la Cuba to feed the masses.
“2) It’s not being brought in overnight…it won’t be in full force until 15 years from now. By then virtually all of the worst offenders would be off the road anyway”
Better yet, the odds are I’ll be dead by then.
I thought Mengele was Morgentaler.
Or does Canada have the dubious distinction of having more than one?
“The sweeping new law also applies to trucks registered in other states that drive into California.”
– I thought only the federal government had the right to regulate interstate commerce…
You can’t cut off your transport companies without a really really good backup plan. I purchase goods for a north american plumbing/heating wholesaler and without our DHL, CFL, FedEx, etc we’d be hooped.
Teach are you a genuine asshat or just trying to stir up the natives?
Oz – the world population is NOT decreasing. The RATE of INCREASE is DECREASING.
Jack – “All a result of ‘not enough’ to go around. That is also part of the reason for the killings and murders in so many parts of the world.”
You have that backwards. The planet has lots of “spare capacity”.
Mr. Teach,
You have my sympathy, sir. You post a reasoned response, making a number of, as yet, unrefuted points, and all you receive is illiterate vituperation in return.
Now, if the California government had mandated a phase-in period of one or two years, I might agree with some of the critics, but as you pointed out, truckers have 15 years to comply. Are there really that many 14 year old commercial vehicles still on the road?
According to a 1995 U.S. Government estimate, the energy cost of carrying a ton of freight a distance of one km averages 337 kJ for water, 221 kJ for rail, and 2000 kJ for trucks. But, where I live, in Richmond Hill, Ontario, we used to have a Canadian Tire store that had a railway line right behind it (and I don’t mean a mile or a half-mile behind it; I mean the store’s property ended at CP’s right of way). Was there a siding to drop off freight cars? No.
OK, for one store, I can hear people saying “it’s not efficient to build a siding”. But, a few years ago, we built a new retail area just north of Highway 7 and east of Yonge. It holds a huge Home Depot, an even larger Canadian Tire, a Sam’s Club (the members’ only version of Wal-Mart), and a number of smaller “big box” retailers. Again, the rail line runs right next to the property. Did they build a siding? Nope.
As an engineer, I find this type of waste appalling. Why should products run literally within a few hundred metres of their destination, but rather than stop there, continue on to a freight marshalling yard where they will doubtless sit for a few days (tieing up resources as well as capital), and then be trucked back at a cost of additional time, energy, work, and yes, air pollution, traffic, and road damage? This is not a failure of technology; as is all too often the case, it’s a failure of BRAINS. Are there challenges to building sidings? Of course! Up front costs, equipment to get containers off/on cars, docks, etc., and then there’s the logistics end of it as well. However, I believe these could all be overcome if there was an incentive to do so.
For example, Railex in the US has a train/truck distribution system for fruits and vegetables from the West Coast to the East that guarantees delivery in five days (and often achieves three day end-to-end transit times), using about 1/4 the diesel of comparable truck loads. They use sophisticated software, a custom built marshalling yard, GPS-enabled cars, etc. Note that each train carries the same cargo as 200 trucks, saving about half a million truck road miles PER TRAIN. This is what brains can accomplish, as opposed to taking the simplest, easiest way.
Trucks are here to stay; no one with a shred of intelligence would suggest otherwise. But to say that the truck industry cannot be made more efficient, more effective, and to contribute less pollution, congestion, and road damage is equally stupid. The history of the North American truck and auto industry is one of glacially slow response to change, be it fuel efficiency, pollution, safety, and quality. Sometimes, a little government prodding is required, but when that stick is applied, the changes can be swift and dramatic. For example, Detroit fought for years against the phase-out of leaded gasoline. However, from 1993 to 2002, lead emissions in Canada and the US dropped by 94%, almost all because of unleaded fuel. I have no doubts whatsoever about the abilities of North American engineers to build less polluting engines (and, for that matter, high quality, comfortable small vehicles); I have grave doubts about the abilities of North American executives, fixated on next quarter’s bonus, to make the necessary long term decisions. Regulation is sometimes necessary; as the farmer said, when asked why he was hitting his mule in the head with a stick, “First, you have to get his attention”.
KevinB, the only flaw in your argument is you assume the regulations will be made intelligently. For the purpose of improving efficiency, quality, safety and etc., the great minds will craft an effective bill that considers all factors and the unintended consequences of their actions.
This is never the case. Regulations are made by idiots to get votes. They don’t care what happens so long as they keep getting elected.
Dinging the truckers in Kali is a big vote getter, and will continue to be until the trucks stop coming. Then the screaming will begin, and the officials in charge will do a burning fast 180 turn and start making nice to the truckers.
The sun rises in the East and sets in the West, Kevin.
>Mr. Teach,
“You post a reasoned response, making a number of, as yet, unrefuted points, and all you receive is illiterate vituperation in return.”
~KevinB
Teach’s tells:
1) The need to breathe is a little more acute than the need to have a Wal-Mart full of cheap crap.~Teach
*Allusion to false dichotomy. Forced choice between shopping at Wally Mart and breathing is unnecessary. Creation of hysteria by asserting that breathing is being threatened when it isn’t.
2) It’s not being brought in overnight…it won’t be in full force until 15 years from now. By then virtually all of the worst offenders would be off the road anyway.~Teach
*Thin end of the wedge. Implementation can be accelerated if legislation is accepted without a fight. Immediate need for such legislation during a recession is not only questionable but open to rejection. It is hubris on the part of legislators to enact legislation which will be im-plemented 4 terms from their current term of power in a democracy.
3) Emissions standards not applying to trucks was not going to last forever and anyone who didn’t see that writing on the wall is a fool.~Teach
*Fallacy strawman argument. No one said emissions standards applying to trucks was never going to be passed. I question the timing and so do others.
(KevinB mentions trains. Good idea. Killing trucking before trains are an actual working option is a bad idea akin to sawing off the branch you’re hanging on before moving to a stronger perch)
4) Yes the up front cost outlay is going to hurt, but in the long run having a cleaner running, and by extension more efficient, vehicle is going to save money.~Teach
*This is a refutation of Teach’s own point #2 where “it won’t be in full force until 15 years from now. By then virtually all of the worst offenders would be off the road anyway.”
Happy now KevinB?
Oh, and about the railroad sidings? Maybe we should just get engineers to solve the problem with the Big 3 Auto companies because the railroad situation is very similar.
The railroads are privately owned and the railroad workers belong to a really big powerful union. 🙂