Encouraging Low Carbon Transportation
France, where bicycling represents about 3% of all trips taken, wants to be more like The Netherlands, where that figure is 30%. So what’s the plan?
It’s all nicely explained in this video linked here.
When I interviewed Professor Veerabhadran “Ram” Ramanathan of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego for the climate change chapter in my first book (Renewable Energy–Facts and Fantasies), I noticed that he arrived via bicycle. One of his students told me that his concern for the environment informs many of his personal choices, and that bicycling is one of them, which is especially cool, given that, as suggested in the pic above, he’s not exactly a youngster.
Ram has been researching climate change and warning humankind about its consequences for four decades. I really couldn’t have chosen any better; It was quite an honor that he accepted my invitation.
Craig,
The Netherlands is a very small, very flat nation, not much bigger in total area than a large US city.Traditionally, bicycles have proved popular in the Netherlands, although car ownership is about the same ratio as the rest of Europe.
Despite being home to the famous Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company, the price of gasoline in the Netherlands is relatively expensive at about $US 7.00 per gallon.
For almost a decade the Netherlands Government heavily promoted Plug-in Electric transport with considerable success a long as the subsidies, tax exceptions and incentives remained.
Pure EV sales remained small, but when the Government built the worlds largest per capita public free charging network for PIEV’s sales peaked at around 9% of new vehicles sales.
Sadly, once the subsidies and incentives were reduced, EV sales disappeared and even EV sales dropped by 80%.
In other news the Netherlands government has refrained from passing into law its stated intention to close all coal fired power by 2030. A combination of economic, Union and other factors have made factions within the government hesitate.
Several members of the Senate alarmed by Germany’s experience have questioned whether the same environmental result could be achieved by simply upgrading existing power plant to Ultra super critical. The Netherlands Parliament has commissioned a report to study the feasibility. The report will be due in early 2020.
The result of a long term,comprehensive study by Harvard University into the effect and downsides of expanding wind power reveals turbines and wind farms produce significant ‘warming’ effects and loss of air moisture. Wind advocates argue the Harvard study doesn’t show turbines causing global warming, just local heating limited to a few hundred square miles.
While that maybe true in a nation the size of the US with a widely varied terrain, it’s of real concern for a small, flat nation of only 16,040 square miles and 17 million people.
The current centrist government of the Netherlands has become far more conservative and is reviewing many of its more extravagant environmental policies.
If only Trump could learn from the Netherlands. That would greatly benefit the United States. Why is it that Americans believe that Trump is helping them by making staying alive more expensive and by destroying the environment.
Susan,
The reason an increasing number of Americans support the President’s policies, are because they work!
America is not a tiny nation like the Netherlands that doesn’t even possess it’s own currency. Most Americans still work and live in the older US economy, including the entire US working class. These folk are the heartland of America, ignored and forgotten (even “deplored” ) by Democrats like President Obama.
These people don’t want increased welfare, expensive healthcare programs that deliver substandard services but employ lots of bureaucrats, they want to see their jobs come back, their communities come alive again, their children prosperous.
President Trump is restoring these benefits and opportunity to working class Americans, small business people and local US companies.
The environment benefits because realistic programs allow for America to remain competitive while developing new and cleaner technology.
Obama and the Democrats simply exported all the dirty, pollution producing industries to developing nations or China, thereby increasing global pollution, while impoverishing the American working class.
Senators like Californian Diane Feinstein (D) with fortunes exceeding $100 million accumulated while serving as as a politician, thanks largely to the beneficence of the Peoples Republic of China, are committed globalization supporters since their vast family fortunes and campaign support is funded by the Government of China.
Senator Feinstein even sat as chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee, while employing a member of the Chines espionage agency (People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security) as a trusted aide, he was listed on employment records as an “office manager”.
His 20 year employment period only came to an end when the FBI informed her that Russel Lowes status as a Chinese Espionage agent may become public.
Feinstein made a public statement claiming she had immediately fired Russel Lowe whom she described as low level employee a mere driver.
In fact, Senator Feinstein’s claim was to say the least disingenuous ! Russel Lowe was employed as the Senator’s Campaign office manager, Senatorial aide, bagman, and even represented her at diplomatic functions.
Nor was he “dismissed” , he was allowed to retire on full pension. The FBI just “accepted” without further investigation, her assurance he was only a spy on political matters, not classified security material.
Contrast the FBI’s treatment of Russel Lowe with that of Carter Page, and President Trump’s indignation at FBI bias suddenly make a lot more sense!