I wrote Gary Schiff about the issue, and his attitude is essentially that truckers should get out of the city.
First, let me apologize for our young Democratic Farmer Labor endorsed Council Member; He is still a bit inexperienced and has yet to fully appreciate the fine agrarian and working class traditions of our party. Gary seems to look at flour mills and factories and see condo conversions where we more experienced DFLers see jobs. Now of course Gary's vision would be fine and dandy, but for the problem that the citizens will have to work somewhere like those factories to earn the money to buy his dream condos.
But if Council Member Gary Schiff and his fellow Council Members really want to cut idling they should start by setting a good example with our own fleet. Has not every citizen seen Minneapolis' city vehicles idling for what seems like eternity?
Let's start with the big iron- we own a locomotive and towboat powered by decades old diesels with no pollution controls whatsoever. These are huge engines, with each cylinder as big as a big diesel trucks whole engine, and they have at least 12 of those cylinders. The 2007 truck diesels will emit less than one hundreth of the fine particulates that the pre-emmissions controlled diesels of decades ago did. Thusly our city's locomotive or towboat when idling emit more fine particulates than a thousand idling 2007 diesel trucks. And those big engines idle a lot- they're so hard to start that as a general rule they are not shut off until they return to their Port of Minneapolis home.
There are ways to clean up our city's biggest moveable polluters. New locomotives cost over a million dollars and I hate to think what a new towboat would cost. But several retrofit technologies exist that could clean up these monster diesels. These diesels engines are still produced, so it's possible to install much of the latest pollution control equipment on older models such as ours. Their are also several ways to reduce idling such as "smart-start" technologies that start the engine up when it or the cabin are getting too cold then shut the engine off again when their warm again. Diesel or propane fueled heaters are also available that much more cleanly keep the engines and cabs warm without idling. Another option seen on many new passenger locomotives is a smaller "pony" diesel generator that provides heat, lighting, etc. while the train is parked allowing the much larger propulsion diesel to be shut off.
How many diesel trucks does our city own? Hundreds, and many spend as much time idling to keep the windows defrosted, radios running, etc. as they do moving. Similar technologies to the really big diesels are available such as diesel fueled heaters to keep cabs and engines warm and isolation switches to allow one battery to power radios and such while other batteries are kept in reserve to restart the engine.
Several commentators have suggested that the facilities served by great numbers of diesel trucks be required to install devices like "Idleair" to cut down on idling. As owner of two of the major destinations for big diesel trucks in our city, the Convention Center and Port of Minneapolis, again our city should step forward and set the example. Idleair is more suited to southern climates where heat is more a problem that the cold we experience, so it would be a questionable investment. However, just installing some 120 volt plug ins at the truck parking areas of our city facilities would allow truckers to plug in their engines, electric blankets and heaters, etc. and shut off their diesels. These plain old electric plug in's would work perfectly with the 120 volt cab electrification systems now coming to market that are much more cost effective than Idleair.
And last but not least, just putting some biodiesel or ethanol in the appropriate fuel tanks will do a lot to cut vehicle emissions too.
So Council Member Schiif, what say ye- are you ready to amend your ordinance to truly clear the air rather than bash the blue collar workers on wheels?
From Hawthorne, where our dairy's diesels provide living wage jobs and fresh foods,
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