I have been driving hybrid gas/electric or diesel vehicles for work at the York Daily Record for the past 23 years. I have always been an early adopter of new technology.
The steady increase in energy prices and a desire to preserve natural resources drives me to find new solutions.
Green Mesh sifts ideas, searches for innovation and observes our failing oil based energy infrastructure as it’s forced to evolve.
Paul Kuehnel
paulk@ydr.com
I headed down to Durham, North Carolina for a graduation over the weekend. I was trying to squeeze the most mileage I could out of a 2005 Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission with 65,000 miles on it. I think 56.7 miles per gallon might be a record for me.
My secret formula: Use cruise control and set it to 65. I did have the impossible to recreate advantage of no traffic jams on Interstate 95.
The York Water Co. is looking to increase water rates this year. Chief Financial Officer Kathy Miller said the company plans to say how much that increase will be and when it will take effect in the next few weeks. York Water Co.'s net income was down about 9 percent in the first quarter of 2008.Part of the reason for a decrease in water use per person is an increase in water-efficient appliances and overall water conservation by customers, Miller said. inyork.com/ydr
With most materials and services in a free market, as the demand declines so does the price. In this instance, our reward for conservation, is a higher price.
It's a unique circumstance for a business...
Finish reading 'Consumption down at York Water, price goes up?' »When Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, it pushed a wall of water through the Irrawaddy Delta, a low-lying, densely populated area that had been stripped of its protective trees.The delta had lost most of its mangrove forests along the coast to shrimp farms and rice paddies over the past decade. That removed what scientists say is one of nature's best defenses against violent storms. iht.com
At least 65,000 people are dead or missing and entire villages are submerged in the Irrawaddy delta after Saturday's cyclone.
Plants are natural filters for sediment and slow down the natural violence of water.
Imagine Central Pennsylvania when it was only virgin forest. Streams didn't swell up after a rainstorm as they do today because water was trapped in trees and slowed by grasses. Slow running streams don't erode as quickly and become deep trenches so sediment from flooding has the opportunity to deposit on the banks and create fertile soil.
As with the mangrove forests, disturbing grasses on our coasts and increasing erosion of natural sand barriers leaves inland areas more vulnerable.
Humans are attracted to water and coastal areas for economy and aesthetics. The combination of reduced defense, increased population and the random fury of nature paints a picture of reoccurring disaster.
It's called speed networking;you meet many other business people in a short time. The idea is for participants to meet as many people as possible and cut out all the awkwardness. The York County Chamber held sessions at the Business and Technology Expo this week.
Once upon a time, the philosophy behind letting a diesel engine idle was that it did more wear and tear on the engine and the fuel cost was marginal. Plus, long haul drivers sleep and relax in their trucks so it becomes a home away from home that needs power and climate control for a good night sleep.
Local New Oxford blogger (youngtrucker.blogspot.com) reminds fellow drivers to use an auxiliary power unit (APU). The small motor generator combination powers the mobile home of a driver while greatly reducing fuel cost by not running the large engine.
Each year, U.S. Trucks consume more than 1 billion gallons of diesel fuel without even moving. More specifically, the University of California, Davis estimates that each year the average truck consumes approximately 1,818 gallons of diesel fuel while idling. Under this assumption, those calculations result in over $6,000 in fuel costs at a national average of $3.00/ gallon per truck, per year. peakpowertools.com
And that was last week the current average price for road diesel in the US is $4.15 (5/5/08) That is an increase of $1.36 in the past year. In York County, $4.29 is about the lowest price today for a gallon of diesel.
It's no question that the price of diesel has an impact on the bottom line of farming. Virtually all mobile machinery on a farm runs on diesel. 
Joe Lerew, a fruit grower, slowly drives a tractor across the rolling hills of his Adams County farm planting apple trees. Even without paying road taxes for farm diesel fuel, it costs Lerew $3.80 cents a gallon.
According to Lerew, the high price of fuel has made it costly for the west cost to market apples here giving him a cost advantage, and since Pennsylvania is cradled between Washington, D.C., Boston and New York, there is a hungry market for fruit craving to shed the cost of transportation.
Buying food produced close to home means less fuel is burned from seed to dinner table.
“This is an act of kindness,” 9-year-old Daryl said, as the pair handed the silver-haired woman a carnation and a small basket of candy and snacks. “I hope you have a good day.”
Daryl, Livia and nine other children in the Empowering Youth TREND program spent Tuesday afternoon surprising neighbors with acts of kindness. They filled small baskets with goodies, gathered carnations donated by Lincolnway Flower Shop and set out to help others.
The Olde Towne East Neighborhood Association sparked the event, said Greg Clayton, the group’s president. The association is tired of the bad reputation the youths in the community have gotten, he said.
“We’re trying to change that perception of kids,” he said. Jerri Zimmerman, a community resource assistant with York City Police, runs the TREND program. The kids head to the Community Resource Center on Reinecke Place every afternoon to use computers and participate in activities.
Children want to do good things, but sometimes they don’t know how, Zimmerman said.
As Clinton and McCain are still hot on the gas tax holiday, 230 economists -- Democrats, Republicans, advisers to past presidents and four Nobel laureates -- signed a letter today opposing proposals to suspend the 18-cent federal gas tax for the summer driving season. washingtonpost.com
First, research shows that waiving the gas tax would generate major profits for oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers," they wrote. "Second, it would encourage people to keep buying costly imported oil and do nothing to encourage conservation. Third, a tax holiday would provide very little relief to families feeling squeezed.
Greenmesh: Gas tax "holiday" is a bad idea part II (5/2)
Greenmesh: Reducing gas tax is a bad idea (4/27)
Interesting New York Times story about people questioning the electromagnetic fields in a hybrid car. (Fear, but Few Facts, on Hybrid Risk 4/27) The underlying premise of the story is that some people are using hand held meters that read electromagnetic fields and are worried, while manufactures say that the vehicles clear their own tests. Scientists say that they don't have any data that suggests any ill effects.
Hybrid cars move around huge blocks of electrical energy that create electrical fields when active. There is a motor with windings and thick cables that run under your seat. The electrical energy is the vehicle's torque. To define if electromagnetic fields are a problem is a difficult task.
A magnetic field is generated when power is flowing. So during hard acceleration and braking in a hybrid, electrons are flowing rapidly. During cruising when the batteries have been topped off, there is little current flow. So even if magnetic fields were a problem, everyone has different driving habits and routines and is subject to different amounts of electromagnetic fields.
We live around all kinds of magnetic fields. Sit on an electric train above the traction motor and you are sitting on an a big magnetic field. A heated seat, like an electric blanket, creates a constant low energy field and cell phone create fields inches from your brain that vary by the distance to a tower and the amount a person talks on the phone.
It's hard to quantify and analyze new hazards when our world is filled with existing chemical and electromagnetic interventions that are all contaminating our bodies more than if we lived in the virgin forest and hunted rabbits.
We can enjoy spending a few less dollars on gas and send a few less dollars to oil producing countries that don't like us until someone comes up with some evidence that hybrid cars kill us faster than everything else we have created.
The concept of a fuel cell for fueling cars and small electronics is just waiting to come of age.
Sony has combined a Lithium-polymer battery with a new hybrid fuel cell. The methanol powered fuel cell also recharges a battery during operation allowing the 1.2-inch by 2.0-inch power pack device to shed off excess power to the battery and power on after the fuel source has been depleted. intomobile.com
General Motors has reprogrammed the Chevrolet Cobalt with "engine mapping, lower roller resistance tires and perhaps some gearing adjustments" (autoblog) to squeeze out 5 more miles per gallon. It jumps from 31 to 36 mpg on the highway and increases just shy of that difference in the city. The thriftier Cobalt gets a badge that says XFE
Big Oil makes big profit and pays big taxes.
Some of the presidential candidates are screaming for a windfall profit tax on oil companies.
From 2003 to 2007, Exxon's earnings grew by 89%, while income taxes grew by 170%. Much of that growth was overseas. Exxon paid $9.3 billion in worldwide income taxes in the first quarter of 2008, representing a 49% tax rate on its gross income of $20.2 billion.
In related news, When Congress passed the 2007 energy bill in December, it kept tax credits for oil and gas companies while allowing those for wind and solar power to expire this year.
The evil "big oil" equation is more than a few companies being evil profit mongers. It is about a profit stream that has developed that feeds things like dividends, commodities, and retirement accounts via 401-K and pension investments.
It's a tidal wave of money blasting it's way through Capitalism. It's too much of one thing, one force, one method of thinking; tunnel vision blinded by rows of zeros after the $.
I can't believe this concept continues as a viable election tool. It's just an all around costly negative that pulls money out of public transportation dollars, promotes consumption, raises oil revenue, and sets us up for a 18 cent spike in the fall when some other "crisis" will already have a grip on the oil market.
GRAHAM, N.C. - Hillary Clinton criticized Barack Obama yesterday for opposing the concept of suspending the gas tax during the peak summer driving months, a plan both she and Republican John McCain have endorsed. (Boston Globe)
Reducing Gas Tax is a bad idea - Part I - Greenmesh.com - April 27
Researchers at Hewlett-Packard have developed a working unit of a memory circuit that has existed in theory for 37 years, which could ultimately replace RAM and make computers more intelligent by tracking data it has retained.
Using a principle similar to the synapse of the brain, the memory can "learn" by repeated tasks.
A memristor circuit requires lower voltage and less time to turn on than competitive memory like DRAM and flash, Williams said. "Because it [uses] less voltage and less time, of course, it uses much less power," Williams said. Denser cells also allow memristor circuits to store more data than flash memory. PC World
Nature inspires music and on May 7 at Penn State York's Pullo Performing Arts Center that inspiration is returned to help benefit the Susquehanna River.
The artists of Whisperingsare a community of piano artists who promote themselves as a group as an internet radio station.
This event will feature pianists Greg Maroney, Louis Landon, David Nevue, and Emmy Award winner Jace Vek and will benefit the work of Stewards of the Lower Susquehanna.
For tickets 717.505.8900 or buy online
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