Letters to the Editor
SEND LETTERS TO: spear@earthwatchohio.org or P.O. Box 213, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
To the Editor,
Leo Russo should be commended for pushing new frontiers at Tri-C’s Green Academy. But, in saying that “green jobs” will be a significant source of, he hopes, living wage jobs for the urban poor, he does not acknowledge a greater reality. And that is that carbon is not just a problem because we import so much of it. It is the very foundation of Ohio’s economy. Once you start talking about high-priced carbon, as we now experience at the gas pump, and the actual elimination of carbon, as the green futurists envision, you’re talking about the reduction and elimination of vast amounts of the state’s economy.
The risk is that in trying to serve the poor, we are pushing to a future that would create millions of new poor in Ohio alone. Ohio’s economy is founded on its plentiful supply, or near access to, billions of tons of cheap carbon, called coal. Throw in iron ore brought in by cheap water transportation, and that spells O-H-I-O. When the green economy comes along, there’s no huge advantage to putting it here over anywhere else. So it might well be somewhere else. That would leave millions of Ohio workers with nothing to do except leave or starve.
Dear Dr. Bob,
After reading the article Like your cell phone? How about a cell car? by Dr. Bob Ross in the Aug./Sept. issue, I find the information off in foul field territory. Electric Vehicles (EVs) were the first automobiles to hit show rooms and first to break land speed records.
Trucks from Mack, Reo, White, Baker were used to move freight from rail, barge, factories to stores, homes and wherever. From 1894 to 1927, EVs ruled. In the late 60s to early 80s, American Motors Corp. invested in EVs to help the last fuel crisis. Lead acid batteries at best get 75 to 100 miles to a charge. Today’s hybrids, gas plus electric, increase the mileage by 50 percent.
Since most people (75 percent) don’t travel more than 30 miles on any given day, an EV would suit them fine. The best battery that would make the biggest impact on EVs would not be the lithium iron phosphate. In my book the zinc aire puts all batteries to shame. Tested in Europe in Greyhound buses in the 80s, it can go all day on highways and weigh 60 percent less than lead acid batteries.
The electric vehicle enabled the gas and diesel vehicles to operate. The fuel right now that can ease America off foreign oil is natural
gas. So convert your gas or diesel vehicle today. Only $1.35 per compressed gallon.
Concerned citizen,
Dear Mr. Monda, Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on my recent article regarding EVs. You’re right in saying that there’s nothing new about EVs and that there are several battery types that would be more effective than the older, heavier lead acid batteries.
But the point of my article was not the newness of EVs or the power of new batteries, but that EVs won’t get mass produced until there is a national recharging infrastructure—like the kind proposed by Shai Agassi. His proposal would put together a national recharging infrastructure for $100 billion dollars—about what we spend nationally for gasoline in two months. And for an additional $500 billion, all the electricity needed could be generated by totally green, renewable sources such as solar or wind.
Finally, you mentioned natural gas as a way to save money and "ease America off foreign oil." True, you could substitute natural gas for gasoline, but I think there’s a problem with that approach. Switching from one fossil fuel to another does not solve the environmental problems associated with global warming and our dependency on foreign sources for fuel. Battery powered vehicles, recharged by a renewable energy infrastructure, is by far the greener solution in my opinion.
For readers who would like to know more about the proposed EV infrastructure project, you can email me at rossongco@aol.com and request my EV article. Or you can go to Shai’s website at www.projectbetterplace.com.