Common Ground
A homeowner in Waukesha for 20 years, Steve is president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and enjoys motorcycling, fishing and staying on top of politics.
Government Can Help Transportation Costs
Make no mistake about it. I'm a Tea Party supporter. I believe that if it isn't in the Constitution, the federal government shouldn't be doing it. That is to say, there are things that they are doing that I think enough states would approve of that they would become amendments. There are things that would never make it. Energy is something the federal government should have a policy on. At the moment I'm inspired by the article in Sunday's business section about compressed natural gas.
Will Hybrid Cars Become A Rarity?
The first time that I heard of "Rare Earth Magnets" was referring to the tiny, super strong magnets used in computer hard drives that store data. Most every computer has them. They are made from "Rare Earth" minerals. The key to my blog is the word RARE.
Getting Transportation
With the economic conditions, things are changing even for those fortunate to still have a job. I have one that often requires traveling. I've flown across the country for work and driven as far as Atlanta. Historically, a company provides a vehicle for business use. I've enjoyed such an arraignment for years, but that is changing. Where I work, I've been told that the lease is up on my vehicle and I will be getting a vehicle allowance and will have to provide my own means of transportation.
US Should Bail Out Automakers
I'm what you could call a GM baby. Dad was an engineer for GM at the old AC Spark Plug turned Delco Electronics plants once in Milwaukee by North and Farwell and then in Oak Creek. As a child I remember Dad bringing home pamphlets. Some I would read, some were of no interest to a child. A child never thinks about it but now that I am a grandfather and my parents have passed on, I realize how well GM took care of their employees. Even after Dad passed away, GM continued to take care of Mom. And this is why GM and Ford are in the trouble that they are in now. Toyota, Subaru and others never had the long term relationship with employees or benefits negotiated by labor unions. Not strapped with pensions and US automaker level benefits, it was not a level playing field and we as a country have suffered for it while we drive these cars build by foreign owned companies.
City Needs To Provide The Egg
It's another chicken and the egg situation. T.Boone Pickens is promoting CNG (compressed natural gas) powered transportation. Honda is currently the only company making a car running on natural gas. Natural gas is cheap, but a car can't carry much because it is not currently possible to store it in a liquid state. It can only be compressed. So to store enough gas to get around yet have some space for people and luggage, the range of the car isn't much over 200 miles before refueling is needed. The nice part is you can buy your own refueling station for your garage and connect it to your gas meter. The bad part is that it takes sixteen hours to refill and empty tank! Oh, it costs about $8,000 too. There are, however, commercial refueling stations that can refill your tank, actually it's recompressing it, and it doesn't take too much longer than putting $75 worth of gasoline into the the old Ford Explorer. The problem is, where are they?
An Oil Tycoon Speaks Up
T. Boone Pickens has been spending his own money on TV commercials inviting people to visit his website and read his energy proposal for America. The man makes good sense and I signed up for his email updates.
Building Codes Should Prepare For Future
In the past I've criticized new construction as putting a load on our dwindling water resource. This, even though the business that I'm in is dependent on new construction. Briefly, I don't believe that long time residents of the city or county should be put in the same boat of inconvenience to accommodate development and expansion. Those dwindling the resource should be the ones to carry the load. Water wise, this would be prohibiting watering lawns, gardens and washing cars in new developments except with water gathered from cisterns or other non-aqufier sources. On site water recycling of gray water should be included with conservation efforts.
An Electric Car Not Ready For Prime Time
Today's front page was about an electric car call the ZENN which is all electric and plugs into an regular outlet to recharge. All well and good until I saw it had a top speed of 25 MPH. Uh, can we say golf cart here?
