Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Climate Change and Environmental Issues "Greener" Trucking - Or Something Else ?

Mechanic, have you ever heard of diesel-electric?

Sure, CS ! Has worked pretty good in locomotives since the Fifties, too ! (But their "electro-motive braking effort" is converted to heat, not stored as energy. (Yes I know there are some prototypes out there with some recovery technology.) Last I knew they were yard engines and a couple of light rail types, not freight roaders.

IAC until/unless there's going to be some major overhauls of weight regs for trucks none of the extant hybrid technology can compete. All mfgs fight like hell to reduce the "parasitic" i.e. "tare" weight of their tractors/trucks because every pound there detracts from payload capacity that pays the bills.

I agree trucking is an area ripe for technological innovation. I don't see these new regs as encouraging it. Rather the other way around. (lBe fun speculating on what it might be, but that's a subject for another thread.) >Mech

Mechanic,

I know that some EPA regs are unfair to the small guy. But it doesn't necessarily follow that the EPA should be dismantled because of that. It is more reasonable that the issues of unfairness be examined and corrected.

Please document the particular issues that you are referring to so that we might discuss them.

LT, What you propose needs another thread. The scope and impact of the EPA - national and its state daughters - is so vast and so complex it impacts everyone at every level.

Ponder for a moment on the how EPA gerrymandering of the USCOE water management procedures on the Missouri River is impacting millions today, 8/14/ll.

Look sometime at the impact just EPA automotive emmission regs had upon the economy in the 70's, 80's, 90's and 10's.

Right now the subject at hand is heavy freight haulers and the impact politics is having upon them. In this instance, like others, the EPA is merely a "tool of convenience" being weilded by both large freight companies and some "fellow travelers" in government. Both seem to have covert agendae as well as the obvious.

Me ? I just see another kick at the support structure of american small business. And small business is the largest employer in America. What does that say ? >Mech

Can you be more specific. Thanks.

Sure, LT !!

Go back to the original post/cite ! >Mech

Been there, dude. It must be your variety of imagination that makes it all clear to you, 'cuz your broadbrush conclusions are not discussed anywhere in this thread, near as I can tell.

It's your thread, if you don't want to discuss, then okey dokey.

Guess you ought to read the cites, LT ! Its where this all started ! >Mech

Mech, when I first started in production a lot of folk were still cutting on Moviola and Steenbeck flatbed film editing systems.
Then came videotape, mostly the bulky 3/4 inch U-Matic portables connected to a separate camera, which was solid state EXCEPT for the image pickup device section, which was still vacuum tube powered.

Then came the first professional "camcorders", the ubiquitous BetaCam in the lead, with a couple of wannabe formats which soon got crushed by the mighty Sony. Around that time I was still competitive with my separate camera rigs because I owned a BetaCam portable deck along with my U-Matic portables, so I COULD SHOOT BetaCam if the pay grade warranted it.

I had FOUR cameras, and a switcher, I had a very well equipped videotape edit bay featuring multiple format and interformat capability.

My cameras were state of the art at the time, with luxurious Angienieux lenses which normally retailed for almost as much as the camera if bought separately.

And then overnight Sony introduced the "CCD" a fully SOLID STATE image pickup device, which spelled the end for all tube cameras.
They could not compete with the extreme sensitivity and low light performance of the CCD cameras. Suddenly my four cameras, which had set me back over 25 thousand each, were almost worthless.

The point I am making is that I believe it is something of a
cop-out when someone blames the government for them not being able to make it and the reason I think it's a cop-out is because if it weren't for all the lobbying and protection that the trucking, automotive and petroleum industry have garnered for themselves, someone in the market would have destroyed them already long ago.

You said that the electromotive braking in DE locos is cast off as heat and you're quite right about that, but I reply "BUNK" if you're attempting to use that as an excuse because a lot can be done with waste heat in ways which do not add significant weight to a rig.
And if need be, manufacturers could just simply go the loco route and just dump the waste heat the traditional way anyway.

But I suspect that either the Chinese or Japanese will come up with DE for over the road trucks any day now, and they might just figure out a way to use that waste heat as a lightweight energy storage medium.

And then what will be the excuse?

Adapt or die, take it from me, I'm a recovering analog dinosaur who avoided extinction by adapting to the digital world.

And guess what's sitting on my shelf right now?
A formerly "state of the art" JVC GY-HD110 24p 720 HD camcorder, a model which has been used in the past to shoot Oscar winning documentaries. It's an eighteen pound wonder, a thing of beauty with a real lens on it, not some servo driven electronic lens, a real actual PHOTOGRAPHY lens, all mechanical, almost Swiss in its precision. It's a fifteen thousand dollar rig with all accessories, it's loaded for bear.

And it's now damn near obsolete...I bought it in 2005.
My new Sony NEX-VG10, which cost one tenth the price, SMOKES my JVC, smokes it right out of the gate in every respect.
And it looks like a child's toy while my JVC looks like the real thing you'd see on any news reporter's shoulder.

Me and my beloved JVC




SONY NEX-VG10



So should I run around complaining that the demands of the industry are shutting me down because I'm just the little guy?

It doesn't really matter if it's the market or pressure for better efficiency standards by the government because one way or the other it is still ADAPT OR DIE.

And I for one am sick of hearing all the old fossils complaining that they're being forced out of their comfort zone.

Breaker one-nine, this is the future speaking.

There is no excuse for an over the road semi truck to be getting seven miles per gallon anymore, there just isn't.

This is the 21st century, not "Smokey and the Bandit".

Anybody who wants to increase their fuel consumption should be encouraged.