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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (431988)	11/2/2008 12:17:26 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571788

"Rail is already electric." Not where I am. Granted, they do use electric motors to drive the wheels. But a diesel generator supplies the electricity.

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (431988)	11/2/2008 12:37:07 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571788

"Rail is already electric." Oh,riiiiiight. I thought you said "Rat is already electric". The technology for electrification of transportation is extremely well proven and widely used (more so outside the US) and, from an energy BTU/joule point-of-view, highly efficient. Well-established modes of electrified transportation in use today provide many more freight ton-miles/BTU and passenger-miles per BTU than the competing rubber-tired, oil-burning transportation alternatives. The ratio in energy efficiency is so great, especially when electrified rail is substituted for "18 wheeler" tractor trailers and single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs), that minimal, if any, expansion of the national electricity grid will be required to reduce U.S. national oil consumption by 10%, or about two million barrels per day. ...The bottom line is this: The potential for electrification in transportation appears to be far more immediate, well-proven, and readily available than non-transportation experts such as Robert Hirsch seem to acknowledge. Of all the policy responses noted in his report, electrification of transportation appears to have the potential for the quickest, the most permanent, and the most profound impact with the best ancillary benefits for human health, land use, pollution, and Global Warming. lightrailnow.org Step One – Electrify US Freight Rail Lines and Shift Freight to Rail Japanese and most European railroads are electrified. The Russians recently finished electrifying the Trans-Siberian Railroad, from Moscow to the Pacific, and to the Arctic port of Murmansk. So there are no technical limitations. Electrifying railroads and transferring half the truck ton-miles to rail should save 6.3% of US oil consumption. Electrified railroads also expand rail capacity since they accelerate and brake faster. Today’s diesel railroads are roughly eight times more energy-efficient than heavy diesel trucks. Railroads carried 27.8% of the ton-miles with 220,000 barrels/day while trucks carried 32.1% of the ton-miles with 2,070,000 b/day (2002 data). When we convert trains to electricity, the rule of thumb is that 1 Btu of electricity will do the work of 2.5 Btus of diesel on rural plains, and 1 to 3 in mountainous and urban areas. Generating electricity back into the grid when braking is the difference. hopeforthefuture.info