TIGGER Federal Grant Issued For Energy Savings Project
Posted: 21 Nov 2011 01:33 PM PST
The Valley Metro public transportation service in Phoenix, AZ, was granted $4 million of federal money from the Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) program. The money was granted to fund proposed projects for the company’s light rail and bus systems.
Officials from Valley Metro released a statement on how the company plans to use the funds. Using $2.7 million of the grant, the company plans to build a 142,000 square foot solar shade canopy at the operations and maintenance center. The canopy will cover light rail vehicles in storage at the center. The remaining $1.3 million will be used to retrofit around 70 city buses with an electric engine cooling fan system. Electric fans require less energy to operate, are quieter, and have more accuracy in cooling control.
As one of our writers has already reported, there has been a recent debate among experts over whether increased passenger rail construction has actually been environmentally friendly. However, while that debate continues, federal money can be safely invested in retrofitting already existing rail and bus systems by making it more sustainable. These minor modifications will have major impacts on overall emissions, and simple changes could prevent the need for extensive equipment replacement in the future.
High-Speed Rail’s Environmental Impact
Posted: 20 Nov 2011 10:17 PM PST
On a global scale, high-speed rail has gained a great deal of popularity in the last few decades. High-speed rail offers passengers quick commutes and more affordable long-distance travel, but a large part of the appeal of high-speed rail lies in the positive environmental impact it will have in the future. However, the extent of high-speed rail’s “green” qualities are a subject of great debate.
A recent article by CNN asked experts to discuss the positive and possible negative impacts that high-speed rail will have in the near future. According to Dr. Anthony Perl, a professor of urban studies and political science, the fact that high-speed rail does not use fossil fuels is the most important aspect of its environmental impact. With most of the world dependent on a limited resource, Perl believes that “high-speed rail offers a proven means of reducing dependence on this increasingly problematic energy source.” Perl continues to point out that alternative energy technologies are slow to develop, but high-speed rail is technology widely available today. On the opposite side of the debate, transportation expert Richard Gilbert argues that the green benefits of high-speed rail are mitigated by energy grids still powered by fossil fuels. From that perspective, Gilbert believes in some situations high-speed rail could cause more environmental harm than good and that a notable environmental impact would be better found by creating grid-connected traction on a global scale. The point was also made that unless a significant amount of passengers switch to high-speed rail and abandon automobiles, the reduction in carbon footprint will be minimal.
Its very interesting to read about the environmental aspects of high-speed rail. High-speed rail will always be a more efficient form of travel than air planes and automobiles, but it seems that with today’s technology and reliance on fossil fuels, high-speed rail actually isn’t as green as it could be. Once the world’s energy grids can incorporate more sources of alternative energy, high-speed rail’s carbon footprint will greatly decrease, but until then, the limitations of technology should not penalize high-speed rail today. Investment in high-speed rail today is in the best interest of the world’s transportation needs and its also hard to deny that the environmental aspects of high-speed rail have important implications in the world’s future.
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