[Vwdiesel] EPA things

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

Tsk, government mandates/regulation...
  Our cable bill went up about 25% immediately after the government  passed 
the bill that was going to reduce cable cost.  Credit card interest  was 
set to an agreeable level above prime, by a new law.  Prime is near  zero, CC 
interest is higher than when inflation was near 20%...
  Mandate all railroads are electric.  Rural runs would ALL be  dead, what 
few aren't already.  Complaints about overhead wires?  Look  at a switchyard 
then!  Not that it couldn't be made to work but to reinvent  the wheel?  
It'd be almost like mandating a different gauge for the  tracks.  Won't fix 
anything but it'll sure cost a lot.  There are  indeed isolated locals where 
electricity could be generated to power another  train.  They're relatively 
short runs since trains run relatively  level.
  GN had a switchyard near here.  It was what put Leavenworth on  the map.  
They switched from diesel (steam?) to electric, while they went  over the 
Cascades, mostly due to the long tunnel.  Two trains going down  would run 
one going up, is what I'd always hear.  Not too often that's  going to 
happen...  The system was in place, it worked, they changed it  all, why?  Odds are 
it was more cost effective.  So, why would we want  the government to 
mandate a business do something they've already determined  isn't the "best" way 
to do it?  Except for here in the NW, the electricity  is made from fossil 
fuel.  So mandate they burn fossil fuel so that they  won't burn fossil 
fuel...????  That's the problem with the electric car  scheme as well.  You're 
still burning fossil fuel, just not onboard.
  I remember an article in EC that said most of the newer, cleaner  cars 
(at THAT time, early 90's) produced less emissions than the power plant  
would, in order to drive the two cars the same miles.  I believe it was a  Saab 
they were testing and the exhaust actually tested cleaner than the ambient  
air at the time!  The point was to prove that mandating electric cars had  NO 
true, green motivation if you looked at real numbers.
    Loren