( Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)
The York County Solid Waste Authority's Resource Recovery center was the first waste-to-energy plant in the state. Now there are about five, said Ellen O'Connor, the manager of the community services division.
By recycling trash to energy, York County saves 13 acres of landfill space each year. The plant generates enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.
The idea is that eating some foods, like meat, uses more fossil fuel than driving a car, so a bicyclist consuming food uses more fossil fuel than driving a car. bicycleuniverse.info
I don't know where a sedentary person who gorges on meat and drives a full-sized SUV fits into all of this...
The steeple of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, on South George Street in York is getting a new lead coated copper roof.
There was a time when copper roofs were the longest lasting roof next to slate, however acid rain can reduce the life of a copper roof in some parts of the country to under a decade. The lead coating is resistant to acid rain.
My fascination with two-wheeled journeys began freshman year in high school.
Three buddies told their parents that they were staying over each other's houses; we hit the road and bicycled through the night. The exhaustion, the moments of fear, the laughing made it memorable. I don't even remember if there was a destination. We were just going far.
It was a world shared by no one. All those people trapped in their cars going somewhere or sleeping the night away were getting nowhere. We were kings ruling our adventure kingdom.
Motorcycle trips are usually framed by weather reports and last week was scheduled to fall apart right in the middle. It really doesn't matter if the weather changes because that often creates an place to stop and you might just meet someone you wouldn't have met otherwise.
There is an unwritten law about not leaving on a trip in the rain. That's just miserable. This week turned out perfect with windows of clear riding and a rain stop just as planned in the middle.
In the 1980's and 90's, I used to slam the vacation road in a VW diesel Golf.
My concept of vacation planning was to head west and make a right at North Dakota... or wander southwest until... I needed three days to get home.
Once I was having such a good time in Pitkin, Colorado after taking on a new identity for two weeks, that I left there on a Friday evening and had to be back at work Sunday morning in York.
For the past six years, my vacation has been motivated by a motorcycle. Sure there is something wonderful about driving a few hundred miles and filling up with $10 of fuel, but with simple frugality comes a richness of experience.
Smells are richer, those you come in contact seem kinder because of your vulnerability. Fellow riders strike up a conversation without pause.
Once you loose two wheels and let the air pour though your clothes, it's hard to hide in a car during a vacation again.
Cars are for work. Cars are filled with fast food wrappers and stress.
My bike is freedom.
Next: 1259 miles of adventure in five days.
Dragging a cord around isn't really an issue with some planning. The maximum length needs to be the maximum distance from your outlet.
The trick is always working your way away from your power source. I tried mowing forward and backwards, but rotary blades just don't cut very well backwards and feet can get cut off on grades.
Up and back working away from the cord; always turning away from the cord. The electric mower is very quiet with no exhaust or gasoline to breath. I don't add any fluids and has virtually no maintenance.
I have debated the benefit of using an electric lawn mower over a gas powered mower for some time. I never spend more than about $10 for a lawn mower, as people usually throw them out and they still work with some cheap repair. My current mower is a free Lawn-boy. A friend put a new piston and rings in it after his brother-in-law ran it with straight gasoline which seized it.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), traditional gas-powered lawn mowers are a public nuisance to say the least. Using one of them for an hour generates as many volatile organic compounds--dangerous airborne pollutants known to exacerbate human respiratory and cardiovascular problems--as driving a typical car for 350 miles. The EPA estimates that, with some 54 million Americans mowing their lawns on a weekly basis, gas lawn mower emissions account for as much as five percent of the nation's total air pollution. Beyond that, homeowners spill some 17 million gallons of gasoline every year just refueling their lawn mowers. scientific american
About a month ago, I bought an electric lawn mower. I have used it for about a month in tandem with my gas powered mower to cut four different lawns. One lawn has no access to electric power. Follow along with this series as I share my observations.
Part II - 2-stokes, wires and batteries.
How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountaintop it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make -- leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone -- we all dwell in a house of one room -- the world with the firmament for its roof -- and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record/ Sunday News)
Charlotte Halpin was 14 years old when she took a job at C.B. "Red" Klinedinst, a York bicycle repair shop. Today, the business founded in 1909, still sells bicycle parts. Halpin said that Klinedinst couldn't stay in business today because he gave everything away. His business and legacy lived on in one faithful employee of 64 years to run the business long after he was gone.
C.B. "Red" Klinedinst began his York business renting bicycles and grew into one of the largest York retailers of bicycles in it's hey day. The business expanded selling motorcycles and tiny British Sunbeam cars before downsizing back to bicycles.
Joshua Tomel (age 25) doesn't think twice about $4-a-gallon gas prices. He doesn't have to."I drive by gas stations," Tomel, a graduate of St. John's University, said Wednesday. "I don't even bother to look. I am disappointed, though. If we had done something about this 30 years ago ... we wouldn't be out of gas. We would have had alternatives." newsday.com (6/08)
Oh but Josh.. we did.
Tomel's truck was made in 1997 by General Motors during the same time period as the fabled GM EV-1 (electric car) which were recalled and shredded. The truck was built with regenerative braking and a heat pump for cooling and heating.
During the 1990's manufactures were looking for ways to make zero emissions cars. California mandated a percentage of a manufacturer's fleet to be zero emissions in order to sell cars in California. Cost for development was defrayed by federal funding.
By 2003 the zero emission mandate in Califonia was all but swept away and so was GM's electric car program.
I was listening to a speech by McCain in Santa Barbara, California today. Gov. Schwarzenegger, who although he supports the Arizona senator, said he would not allow coastal drilling for oil and asked for exemptions to federal laws so that California can once again adopt standards stricter than federal standards.
-------------------
August 8, 2008
Joshua Tomel wrote me and added this response:
Paul,
Yes I know about that. The reporter neglected to mention that my true feelings about even getting this truck came about from seeing the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?". That quote that you put up was in the part about how I thought (about) Jimmy Carter's call to change and how we fundamentally got around went unheard and unloved.Regards,
Joshua Tomel
Program Director
Long Island Electric Auto Association
Comments (0)