The Oil Drum

176 comments on Thursday Open Thread

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Ridge on March 23, 2006 - 8:20am

Walmart has plans to double the fuel efficiency of their trucks by 2015, from 6.5 mpg to 13 mpg. 13 mpg may not be great, but at least it's going in the right direction.

http://www.walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=349

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reno on March 23, 2006 - 9:39am

13 mpg may not be great, but at least it's going in the right direction.

This would be a miracle if they could pull this off. I would like nothing better than to see big truck get at least 10 mpg's on the road.. I drive over-the-road and know how much fuel truck take each year to run.

I also see they have a statement from the Rocky Mountain Institute and are looking out to 2020..

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Cherenkov on March 23, 2006 - 7:19pm

Anyone here ever hear of railroads? Only the most efficient way to transport goods.

Why are we keeping a fleet of vehicles and the concomitant roadway system in the mix?

That seems pretty stupid.

Why not take the oil we do have, at this relatively cheap price, and revive the rail system? Revive the streetcar system?

The amount of fuel saved over the lifetime of a railroad would be exponentially greater than the fuel saved by more marginally more efficient trucks.

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AlanfromBigEasy on March 23, 2006 - 10:25pm

And run the railroads on electricity. 3x as efficient energy wise (and uses a flexiable energy source). See EU & Japan (and Russia in a MASSIVE conversion).

Urban Rail of all types, subway/rapid rail, light rail, commuter rail and streetcars all offer 100 to 1 energy savings as well as a better "fuel" than our cars.

My article (once again)

http://www.lightrailnow.org/features/f_lrt_2005-02.htm