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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (29613)	2/18/2008 8:18:10 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 217544

<The rising price of platinum is driving a costly wave of catalytic converter thefts from parked vehicles. Alternative solutions must be found.> I know it makes me seem like a has-been, but solutions were found quarter of a century ago. Lean burn engines Small engines, little vehicles [for city use] Electronic engine management Direct injection Better ignition systems Vehicle management systems such as road tolls, bicycle/Segway lanes [less traffic congestion fewer delays] Vehicle proximity controls Less tax preference for diesel fuel Fuel formulation for city use [cut the aromatics, olefins, improve the octane quality] Tax on fuel instead of cyberspace Tax on imports instead of local production [to encourage technology improvements instead of using cheap oil] Cut taxes overall so the impact of fuel tax is more apparent. Repeal town-planning laws which stop people building and living where they like, how they like. Continuing to require catalytic converters and absurdly strict emission laws for some vehicles while ignoring dirty diesels is silly. Tyres are a source of pollution too - they contain nasty oils as plasticizers. As tyres wear, the muck goes flying as particulate pollution with carcinogenic effect. Small tyres and low vehicle weight reduces tyre pollution. Okay, I admit that's a small effect compared with a breakfast of fried bacon and eggs and burned bread crusts. But there are lots of tyres and the muck is significant, along with drips of dirty engine oil from leaking sumps/engines. Tax on diesel fuel is a good place to start. For those worried about CO2, that would also push people towards LPG and other lower carbon energy sources for their vehicles, which would also cut the muck in the ambient air. There are some starter thoughts, No platinum needed = save $500 and more on catalytic converters and use less fuel too [instead of running at stoichiometric]. Spark plugs could still be platinum - they are harder to steal from vehicles and there isn't much platinum in them. Mqurice