Green Energy News | July 22, 1996

July 22, 1996 – Vol.1 No.17

ENERGIES... week of July 22,1996

BICYCLING AND WALKING are probably the most energy efficient ways to get to work. A bowl of Wheaties, a glass of OJ, and a cup of Jo will get you there. A Quarter-Pounder (with cheese, no fries) will get you home. Yet according to a Maryland Department of Transportation study, while 45% of Marylanders own bicycles only one-half of one percent ride to work on a regular basis and 11% do so occasionally. 10.6% walk to work once in a while.

To most, distance is the primary impediment to hoofing and biking it. These statistics are similar nationally. The lesson? Live near your work and eat a good breakfast.

TAMPA BAYWATCH is not another spinoff of the most popular TV show in the world, but a Tampa, Fl environmental group which recently launched a natural gas powered boat. The 23 foot catamaran was developed with Honda Marine of Duluth, Ga. The slick boat uses twin Honda four-stroke marine engines burning relatively pollution-free compressed natural gas (CNG).

The boat is the first of its kind in the world and was skippered in trial runs by EPA Administrator Carol Browner.

WELL, DUH. Fourteen of the major oil and coal producing countries attending the UN sponsored Climate Change Convention in Geneva, Switzerland complained when ministers called for compulsory cuts in the burning of fossil fuels causing global warming and climate change. The leader of the Saudi delegation said that the developed world had created the problem and had “an environmental debt to pay.”

Fears among the disgruntled nations were that major cuts in fossil fuel use world wide would destroy their economies.

Probably true, and certainly would cause political tension between users and suppliers of oil and coal. Perhaps the oil producing nations could be persuaded and helped to develop new sustainable industries to support their economies.

IN AN ABOUT FACE from the Bush administration, the Clinton Administration says it would support the compulsory cuts as envisioned at the Climate Change Convention. Bush wanted voluntary cuts to protect American jobs.

Maybe the Clinton White House sees the potential of new job creation from developing alternative energy industries. Climate experts at the convention fear an increase and intensity of hurricanes, drought, disease, forest fires, and extreme weather patterns as well as some melt-down of polar ice flooding low lying areas