Trump: Make America Polluted Again

The Trump administration's planned rollback of
emissions standards could reintroduce acid rain,
create more smoggy days and cost us money
Make America Polluted Again! 

 Back in the bad old days in the 1970s and 1980s, the rain and snow coming into Vermont was so acidic from pollution that many of those stunted but old evergreen trees on the highest elevations of the Green Mountains were dying.  

Thanks to 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act that limited nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, the rain became less acidic. It took years but those high elevation evergreens are recovering nicely. 

The problem isn't entirely solved. Our lakes in Vermont are still acidic, and the pH of the rain is still a little on the low side. But things are definitely better. 

Or maybe not. 

In his infinite wisdom, President Donald Trump wants to aggressively roll back pollution controls. 

Per the Guardian:

"The U.S. could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration's rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned."

That scientist, Gene Likens, first identified acidic rainwater back in the 1960s.

Likens explained:

"I'm very worried that might happen, it's certainly not impossible that it could happen,' Likens, 90, told the Guardian. Likens is still involved in a long-term monitoring project stretching back to 1976, to sample rainwater for acidity but this program has just had its funding cut by the Trump administration."

Well, of course it has.

The 1990 legislation turned the battle against acid rain into a success story. "If the Trump administration  starts releasing controls on emissions we are going to destroy that success story," Likens said. 

The Guardian tells us what's at stake.

"The plan by the EPA to eliminate or weaken 31 regulations, a move called a 'dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion,' by the agency's administrator, Lee Zeldin, risks many thousands of extra deaths and litany of heart, lung and other illnesses, according to the EPA's own estimates of the rules' benefits."

Overall, Trump has tried to stop clean energy develop and resurrect coal, which is the dirtiest of fossil fuels. 

Coal was one of the biggest culprits in causing acid rain. Although Trump wants a lot of coal plants, market forces might not allow Trump's dream of coal burning industries everywhere. 

Much of Trump's agenda is just to make his billionaire friends even richer. But MAGA also has an anti-intellectual mindset that thinks anyone who is quote, unquote "smart" as suspect. 

"There's a viewpoint now that scientists are the bad guys, that the science is corrupt - things that just aren't true"," said Richard Peltier, an environmental scientist at the University of Massachusetts.

AUTO EMISSIONS

A big centerpiece of Trump's anti-environment agenda is to roll back auto emissions standards. Which of course leads to more air pollution. That wouldn't be the only thing we'd suffer. 

Like Trump's tariffs, the emissions standards rollback could well cost you and me even more money, as Fast Company reports. 

Chris Harto, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports who focuses on energy efficiency, explains it to Fast Company which wrote: 

"Under Biden the EPA enacted the emissions standard and the Department of Transportation enacted fuel economy standards. Both help clean up combustion vehicles -and both are in Trump's crosshairs, as the standards were created in coordination with each other. Making vehicles more efficient, Harto explains, comes with the 'very fortunate side benefit of making the vehicles cheaper to fuel.'

Those combined rules, a Consumer Reports analysis found, would delivery more than $2 trillion in consumer fuel savings by 2050. 'That's a massive amount of money that's at stake,' Harto says." 

We all want to save money, but we really do need to circle back to air pollution, and perhaps even more importantly, climate change. 

Fast Company again: 

"Speaking to reporters, Trump said that the new auto emissions standards don't 'mean a damn bit of difference for the environment but 'make it impossible for people to build cars.'

Harto contests both claims. The Consumer Reports analysis also found that by 2050, the auto emissions standards would reduce pollution by 12 billion tons. 'It's the single most impactful piece of climate regulation that the U.S, has even put in place,' he said."

 But, of course the Trump team is MAPA: Make American Polluted Again.

 

EV's And Winter: Are They Ready For A Northern Prime Time?

Electric vehicles still don't do super great in winter, but
they're better than you'd expect. 

 We're heading toward an era of electric vehicles, or EVs. Gasoline powered cars and trucks might go the way of the dinosaurs before you'd think. 

California has already passed a law that would ban gas powered vehicles starting in 2035. This is especially important because other states usually follow California's lead when it comes to auto emissions. 

We're headed toward EVs because they are better at preventing the release of greenhouse gases the contribute to climate change. 

But here's an important question for those of us living in the Great White North, since winter hasn't exactly been repealed yet:  How well do they work in the winter?

The short answer is not great, but passable, given the current technology. 

As the Washington Post notes:

"Lithium-ion batteries perform more sluggishly in cold temperatures, cutting into an electric car's range when temperatures drop close to freezing. (For what it's worth, gas powered cars also don't perform perfectly in the cold."

Yeah, but gas powered vehicles at this point do better than EVs. At least in general and until smart people make EVs last a long time without a charge in any weather. un 

There's two major winter problems with EVs.  One is, the lithium-ion batteries perform best at around the same temperature humans do - around 70 degrees. 

The other problem comes into play if you're stuck in a big winter traffic jam in an EV. When it's cold, gas powered vehicles can redirect wasted heat from the engine into the passenger space to keep people warm. 

This is a function of the inefficiency of gas powered cars. They produce all kinds of heat that usually doesn't  do much good.  That's part of the climate problem with traditional vehicles. They emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And they emit more than they should, because of the inefficiency of the internal combustion engine.

However, as WaPo reports, EVs are efficient, which actually could be a problem during a January Arctic cold snap:

"According to the Department of Energy, EVs  use over 75 percent of their energy to propel the car. That means there isn't much waste heat available. Instead, many EVs warm their passengers through electric resistance heating (essentially heating a wire and blowing air over it.

Cabin heating accounts for the lion's share of what drains the EV battery in cold temperatures. According to a 2019 study from AAA that tested five different EVs in 20-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, on average the cars lost 41 percent of their range with the cabin heater on. With the cabin heater off, however, they lost only about 12 percent of their range."

If you're a wimp like me, you don't want to sit in a car on your commute to work freezing your butt off. You also want to get to work without the battery in your EV dying halfway there. 

But then there's a more dangerous aspect to this.

If you're stranded in a blizzard on some highway, you'll get colder much faster in an EV than you would in a gas powered car, assuming you have a full tank of gas.

Plus, if the snow drifts are cleared and you can move on again, but have run out of gas, a good Samaritan with a five gallon jug of gasoline can get you started so you could make it to the next gas station. 

 How do you recharge an EV in the middle of nowhere if it runs out of juice? The news on this is better than you'd expect. 

Here's an example: On January 3, 2021, a quick hitting, intense snowstorm trapped thousands of vehicles on Interstate 95 in Virginia  for more than 24 hours. 

That calamity got people thinking about EVs and winter storm emergencies. As Wapo pointed out: 

"After the Virginia highway debacle, many EV owners, YouTubers and journalists tested their electric cars in freezing temperatures to see what would happen. One journalist for Car and Driver found that, at subfreezing temperatures, his Tesla Model 3 with a resistance heater could keep the cabin warmed to 65 degrees Fahrenheit for a maximum of 45 hours. That number could rise to 50 or 60 hours with a heat pump."

So maybe the winter safety technology with EVs is better than the old fart writing this post realized.  

Here's another factoid: The nation with the highest number of EVs per capita is Norway. It's a lovely country, but not exactly a tropical paradise. Those Norwegians seem to do pretty well with their EVs in the icy dark of a Scandinavian winter.  

Many EVs come equipped with heat pumps. They're more efficient because they move heat to where it's wanted, instead of creating heat that then has to be moved. In cold weather, EVs with heat pumps have nearly double the range of similar vehicles that don't have heat pumps. 

If you live in a usually cold place like Vermont and are considering buying an EV, make sure a heat pump comes standard. 

I guess it's like a lot of things in life. With EVs, you have to plan your range, your trip, and hope that the technology improves while remaining affordable. 

So far, this winter has been kind to Vermonters with Evs. It's been warm, and it hasn't snowed a lot, thanks in part to the climate change brought to us in part by all those gasoline-fired cars and trucks. 

However, climate change isn't nearly enough to cancel winter. we have plenty of subzero days ahead. If not this winter, then in future winters. 

EVs are perfect, even in Vermont, for people who don't need to do a lot of driving, don't have to do a lot of planning and don't need to drive a rugged vehicle. 

I'm absolutely sure EVs are in my future. Due to the nature of one of my jobs, involving unpredictable trips and heavy loads in the bed of my pickup truck, I'm still not sure I'm ready for a winter with an EV.

I'm confident that they're making EV pickup trucks that are getting better and better at withstanding Vermont's rugged winters and roads.   I hope they become good enough soon to satisfy even the people who are toughest on their trucks. 

 

Ignoring "Turn Around Don't Drown" Leads To An Epic YouTube Channel

Two more cars, among perhaps thousands, that have
fallen victim to Rufford Ford in England 

You've heard the phrase "Turn Around Don't Drown" over and over again, right?

It's weather and safety officials begging you not to drive your car through flood waters. Best case scenario when you do that is you destroy your car's engine, hence your vehicle. Worst case scenario is you get swept away and drown. 

Neither option is particularly appetizing. However, somebody in the UK has made a great YouTube channel out of the stupidity of driving through one flood prone spot. 

The back story first: 

The YouTube channel by Tom Sunderland involves Rufford Ford in Nottinghampshire in UK. As hotcars.com explains, there's something like 2,000 of these so-called fords in England.

They're basically small back roads that cross a small stream. Local councils have deemed bridges unnecessary because the brook is usually very shallow and these little roads attract mostly pedestrians and horseback riders, not cars. 

As hotcars.com tells us: 

"If you're on horseback, you can ride through it. Simple. Well, perhaps it's not that simple. Because there are many drivers who think it's fine for them to use it too. And for the majority of the year, it is, as the water levels of these little rivers may only be only three or four inches high during the spring, summer and autumn months. It's when we hit winter that things get interesting."

To be honest, it's sort of OK to drive through water that's three inches deep if you are 100 percent sure the road beneath hasn't been washed out or otherwise damage. I'd probably drive through Rufford Ford with my Toyota Tacoma if I knew the water was only three inches deep.

A couple weeks ago, I drove through three inch deep floodwaters on Shelburne Road in South Burlington. Me and my Tacoma survived just fine. 

The problem is that in winter, the water in Rufford Ford can be deeper than three inches. Much deeper. And shockingly, it seems thousands of people insist on driving through anyway. 

In the winter, very wet storms blow through the UK, and that little brook gets high. People are warned about their own stupidity in these cases. The local council puts up "Road Closed" signs at the entrance to Rufford Ford. 

When that happens, there's a four-mile detour. Many motorists aren't having these detours.

So they plow into the water, with predictable results. Cars get stuck, float away or just die.  Rufford Ford becomes a bit of a tourist attraction when the water is high. Judging from the videos, people gather at the ford and watch cars splash into the water and stall. A friendly local tows the cars out of the drink. The crowds  cheer and applaud the whole thing.  Frankly, it's great entertainment. 

It's mind blowing to watch some of these videos to see a car stuck in that Rufford Ford water, and then what does the next motorist do? Plow right into the water, despite the hints screaming at them not to do it. What the hell?

Tom Sutherland records all of these Rufford Ford fails, and posts them on YouTube. Sutherland makes bank, big time. His channel has more than 21,400 subscribers. Each of his videos ends up having tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of views. It's really on the same level as the 11'8" bridge videos from North Carolina, where hapless truck drivers try and fail to fit under a low bridge crossing. 

(They raised that bridge by eight inches but truck drivers continue to shear off the tops of their vehicles trying to squeeze under it). 

Apparently, quite a few other YouTubers do the same thing as Sutherland. Like I said, it's become a tourist attraction. 

Here's one video from the Rufford Ford collection. It's a compilation of the best fails and attempts in the past year. It's amazing how many stupid people there are. Click on this link to view, or watch by click on the image below.  

Pakistan Snow Disaster Kills At Least 22 People

At least 22 people died when they became trapped in their
cars during very heavy snow in the mountains ]
northeast of Islamabad.

 This seems to be the winter of people being trapped for hours on end on snow clogged highways.  Until now, there has been little loss of life in these incidents. 

Unfortunately, at least 22 people died when they became trapped in cars in a touristy hill town in Pakistan. 

People living in lowlands drove up to the hilltop town of Murree to see the snow. The town is at about 7,500 feet above sea level and sees snow much more frequently than surrounding lowlands.

But the storm turned intense, dumping as much as five feet of snow over several hours. At least 1,000 cars became stuck in the snow.  People in those cars died of the cold, or asphyxiation when the snow buried car tailpipes. 

The BBC said ten children were among the dead, and two whole families - one consisting of five people, the other eight - died in the disaster.  

The BBC reports that authorities are investigating whether there were adequate warnings about the size of the snow and whether too many people were allowed to drive up to the mountain town. 

"According to the BBC's Farhat Javed, who is in Murree, there is space for about 5,000 cars in the town. However, on Friday, 100,000 visitors had been allowed to enter, causing a massive traffic jam as they struggled through the deep snow."

Murree is only about 30 miles away from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, so there's a large population that might want to visit the mountain resort. 

The snow tragedy in Pakistan follows two big traffic tie ups during winter storms in the United States that so far at least, seem to have caused few injuries and no deaths. On January 3-4, thousands of motorists were trapped on Interstate 95 in Virginia for as long as 30 hours dues to heavy snow, numerous crashes and fallen trees blocking the highway. 

On January 6, people were trapped on highways in Kentucky for as long as 15 hours as snow snarled things up and caused crashes there.