Archive for the ‘Green Category’ Category

Trucking Jobs Going Green: Part One

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Truck drivers, and people looking for a truck driving job, have a green future in store if they are thinking about driving semi-trucks, school buses and large pickups. The Obama administration will call to cut fuel consumption and emissions by 10 to 20 percent under first-ever fuel efficiency rules for trucks. For years now, the driving industry has had the opportunity to change form an industry fueled by scarce resources. To a one that offers free energy. There are a couple of catastrophic positive side effects form this movement; one being the balance of green house gases and the environment. The other is the creation of jobs and homegrown industries.

The EPA and the Transportation Department released a proposed fuel economy requirements and reductions in tailpipe emissions for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, beginning with those sold in the 2014 model year and again in the 2018 model year truck manufacturers are going to require to increase their fuel efficiency of their larger vehicles. Also, the proposal seeks a 20 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption from big rig combination tractors by 2018. Large tractor-trailers tend to be driven up to 150,000 miles a year, making them prime candidates for improved fuel efficiency. The infrastructure can be easily upgraded, as trucking routes do not change much. Once we decide as a nation on we want our next energy source to be, the driving industry offers efficient central locations to execute the plan and fine-tune it for mass scale production.

Your heavy-duty pickup trucks and large vans will have a separate gasoline and diesel truck standards phase out, beginning in the 2014 model year. Larger industrial vehicles using gasoline will need to reach a 10 percent cut in fuel consumption and emissions by 2018. Diesel vehicles would need to hit 15 percent reductions by the same time period.

The fuel efficiency rules are put in place to continue to push our country and economy into one that produces energy instead of using it. Our nation’s fleet is a major way we can reduce green house emissions. While accounting for only 4 percent of the vehicles on the road, tractor-trailers consume about 20 percent of the transportation fuel in the U.S making this industry the best place to start.

Truck driving jobs in the future are going to become an emission free work zone and companies are gearing up and getting ready for the change in store. A fleet of new cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs will need to reach 35.5 mpg by 2016, and the government is developing plans for future vehicle models that could push the standards to a range from 47 mpg to 62 mpg by 2025.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said that in addition to the reduction in pollution, “greater fuel economy will shrink fuel costs for small businesses that depend on pickups and heavy duty vehicles, shipping companies and cities and towns with fleets of these vehicles.” President Barack Obama said in May that he intended to release the standards this year, estimating then that the fuel efficiency of tractor-trailers could be improved by 25 percent using existing technologies. If we focus on harassing these technologies, America while take a step in the right direction for the first time in a long time.

Trucking Jobs Going Green: Part Two

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

The People of the United States are in need of something to hold on too, to gain hope from. The on going issue with America and its economy, is the fact that we use everything, save nothing, and expect things to be ok. We only realize failure once our back is against the wall. One of these times it is going to be too late to fight our way back to success. By starting with trucking industry this administration is focused to making changes. They understand that we are so entrenched in our ways as a society that it is going to take generations to get back on the right foot again. Over the last couple of years the majority has felt the huge steps back that this Administration has created. On the other side this was necessary for our country to break its old habits of a smoky exhaust pipe and start to breathe fresh air again.

With the new approach the wheels start to turn in the right direction. The transportation industry is the largest industry in the United States. It accounts to 9% of the workforce that our nation is struggling to employ. It makes sense to start the snowball effect that renewable and more efficient ways to produce energy can manifest. The current backdrop that has been pulled over everyone’s eyes is gasoline and oil. We are crippling ourselves by settling for less.

First, the biggest fallacy is that oil and gas are going to run out any time soon. If you believe this than you and millions of others need to turn off the television and pick a science journal. If we want to use gas and oil for the next one hundred years we can and will. The faster we use this method of destroying resources to produce energy the faster we find more resources to destroy. With everyone out there pointing fingers and being captain obvious, why can’t we see through this thick smoke screen of smog?

If you really care and you really want to see something happen then please take a step back and see how we got to this point. For generations we have used what once seemed to be an endless supply on energy. The lakes of oil where the first to go; before we knew what happen we had already invested in the infrastructure needed to make exponentiation growth as a power house nation that always is in need of more power. What has happened a century later; everybody new would come, but no body wanted to be the first to make the changes that we are forced to change now.

What we use to fuel our live styles with is directly correlated to inflation. Inflation is the massive kink in the hose that we are faced with today. As the price of fuel and cost to make energy increased over the past generations the price of everything inflated to the unjustifiable prices we are faced with today. The energy bubble is about burst. To relieve the pressure that is building up on our economy we are going to have to create value. To create that value you are going to need energy to move the products of value we have created to where they need to be. We are going to need energy to produce the product we need to move forward. This is the snowball that we are slowly starting to pack.

With current technologies that have been neglected, advancements in the way we power our society can take hold. We can start to produce sources of energy that become free after its initial investment. With each investment made, jobs are created and the true 500-pound gorilla in the room; our nations energy-crisis, can start to be tamed. Starting with our trucking jobs and trucking industry. America can catapult its self back among the world’s elite. We are already lagging behind so do not hold back, Germany already receives 80% of their electricity from wind power, France is 80% nuclear powered. The transition form our nations fall; back to the top, starts with Trucking.

Air Conditioning Through Solar Panels on Truck

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

There is new technology out there that actually creates cool air in trucks when the trucks are not running.  Created by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, ICL Co. Ltd, and Nippon Fruehauf Co. Ltd, it is called the i-Cooler Solar system.

In the article, “Trucks stay cool with i-Cooler Solar system”, written by Susan Wilson on October 29, 2010, Susan writes that this system was created so that batteries could store energy to their limits. This means that they can be used through out the night for cooling the cab.

Here’s how it works:

“…thin film solar cells from Mitsubishi Chemical are mounted on the container portion of the truck using mounts from Nippon Fruehauf.  Those cells produce 900 watts of cooling power.  Those stored 900 watts help keep things cool on cloudy days as well as at night.”

For a long story to become short, the solar energy is stored through solar cells attached to the outside exterior of the tractor.  Then a driver can use the cooling program anytime of the day or night.  He can stay cool in the dead of the summer and sleep better at night than if he didn’t have the i-Cooler Solar attached to his cab.

It is suppose to save fuel, which will save on pollution.  It’s a win/win for both overhead costs and the environment.  With fuel conservation and the need for cooling in the summer time, this new system will be a success in my book.  More fleet owners will utilize i-Cooler to lower fuel costs, follow pollution regulations, and allow their drivers to cool off in the evening without running the motor.

http://green.blorge.com/2010/10/trucks-stay-cool-with-i-cooler-solar-system/