Deregulation of State imposed Environmental Regulations

[Bass Man Bruce]

Re: Deregulation of State imposed Environmental Regulations

Coal burning factories, Coal fired trains, and power plants. I can imagine what the cities endured during the booming industry that built this nation.

Ludington, Michigan used to have a fleet of coal burning car ferries and everything in town was always covered in black soot. Of them only the Badger is still running, still burning coal. You can see it's smoke while the ship is still over the horizon.

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Deregulation of State imposed Environmental Regulations

Wow! I just looked at Wikipedia"s info about the Badger. Very interesting. I had no idea there was still a coal burning ferry in the U.S.

But I digress, back to the topic at hand.

I'm not too concerned about any sudden changes here in Canada. Our boat has a two stroke '94 Johnson 150 that still runs well (knock on wood). When it comes time to repower I will try to choose an engine with low emissions but I will also consider other things like price and what is serviced by my local shop.

In the meantime we try to reduce our consumption by fishing close to home more and reducing the frequency of our long trips to the west coast.

 

[sschefer]

Re: Deregulation of State imposed Environmental Regulations

I'm O.K. with what California has done and the way that we have handled it up until to this point. If I'm interpreting it correctly then the laws are based on growth. The basic requirment is that we reduce our emission levels to what they were in 1990. The numbers that are used are based on the states growth rate with regards to the increase in numbers of polluting entities. For example if there was one car on the road in 1990 and in 2020 there are 10 cars on the road, all 10 cars couldn't produce any more emissions than the 1 car did in 1990. If the 1990 car is still on the road then the 2020 cars would need to be zero emission vehicles.

Essentially, what that says is that you don't have to worry about what you have. You can keep using it. If your motor dies and you replace it you can't put a worse poluting engine on your boat even if it's newer but you can put any less poluting engine on it.

Manufactures are compliant now but will need to improve their emmisions for my state if the number of poluting entities continues to grow. The number of old motors that are still running will be the big headache for them. If I was in that business, I'd be running one heck of a lot of super deals right about now. Who knows, that just might happen. Nah.. I'm just dreamin.

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Deregulation of State imposed Environmental Regulations

I wonder at times what happened to the ingenuity and drive of American manufacturers. This seem like a chance for us to get to the front of the pack again, by putting our efforts into manufacturing cleaner burning vehicles. What I see instead is manufacturers paying billions in lawyers fees and lobbying money to ensure that they can continue to drag their feet and do what they've been doing for decades.

CO2 standards are a good example of how we could potentially make our engine manufacturing technology a worldwide leader. Whether or not you agree with global warming theory, I think it's pretty clear that a vehicle that is more efficient produces less CO2, since less oxygen is cycling through the cylinders. Now, when you get into scrubbers and sequestration and that kind of thing then you're defeating the purpose by making the engine less efficient. Still, something like a hybrid is a good thing whether or not you're concerned about CO2. Hybrid boats? Why not? Running at no-wake speeds off of an electric motor makes a lot more sense than idling a V8.

 

[QC]

Re: Deregulation of State imposed Environmental Regulations

Hybrid boats? Why not? Running at no-wake speeds off of an electric motor makes a lot more sense than idling a V8.

Hybrids are only more efficient because they recapture some energy by using braking to recharge the batteries. Very little braking with boats, nothing to recapture as a boat stops by itself . . .

Using gasoline to charge batteries to run electric motors takes 30% more energy than just using the gasoline engine directly.