Sunday, April 3, 2011
Electrified Rail
Since the only policy proposals currently under consideration by U.S. politicians involve the word "cut", I've found a proposal that would truly serve the public purpose. Constructing an electrified and expanded rail network system would help protect our country from oil price volatility. Read the details here.
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3 comments:
I suspect that political opposition to electrified rail comes from the oil lobby.
technically trains are already electrified - that is the cargo trains.
they use diesel generators to power electric direct drives to move cargo at the most efficient means possible to date.
you may here the commercial - moving 5 tons with less than a gallon of diesel.
the trick is to migrate these trains and trucking companies to Natural gas under the pickens plan.
Drake is arguing for trains without an on-board prime mover. The system could utilize alternative energy sources like wind or (gasp!) nuclear. As for the Pickens Plan, I worry about how much it will cost and how much time it will buy us. I've read that the amount of natural gas reserves that the U.S. can produce is severely overestimated.
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