There were news reports a few weeks ago about a new technology for automobiles. I believe it was GM who showed a concept car with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell and said it will be commercially available in 2006 and this is going to be the direction of their new production. I think I also read that the Bush administration was adjusting their energy strategy to take this into account. Leaving aside whether or not this means that we will use less oil and be less dependent on foreign oil (not Mpls. issues), can I assume that a switch over to hydrogen powered autos will be more environmentally friendly? (The byproduct of the fuel cells is water, not carbon dioxide.)
It looks to me like autos are about to become more environmentally friendly. What will happen to anti-auto arguments when they can't point to the destruction of the planet? While I'm not a fan of the internal combustion engine it seems abundantly clear that people prefer autos to other means of mobility and we aren't going to get them out of their cars without heavy handed social engineering. Since drivers also vote, I doubt this is politically feasible. I think the library ought to plan for a realistic future, and that includes parking for autos, serving the needs of transit, bikers and pedestrians. They should do that as well as keep their book ordering services and intra-library loan programs operating in their branches, plus the ability to search the archives from home computers. In short, the more access, the better; the easier access, the better. As time goes by, and more and better solutions are found to society's need for mobility, the idea of using public money to socially engineer what is clearly society's preference for autos is becoming more and more tiresome, and revealed for what it is -- blind ideological bias. Barbara Nelson recently of Burnsville, but disliking the auto-dependency of the suburban lifestyle and wishing I was still living in Minneapolis ken avidor wrote: The City should favor walking, biking, and mass transit over the private automobile because those forms of transit are beneficial to the environment, to urban communities, the streetscape, public safety and public health. Cars in every possible way are toxic to the environment, dangerous to pedestrians and bicyclists. noisy, ugly ,dirty, smelly and a drain on the public purse. _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
