Francis Menton
Connecticut is a small state, so that you will not be paying enough consideration to its heroic efforts to save lots of the planet. Rely on the Manhattan Contrarian to carry you updated on the most recent developments.
On Friday (July 22) Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed the just-passed bipartisan Clear Air Act for the state. Lamont and different state officers gathered in New Haven in 90+ diploma warmth to have fun the nice accomplishment. A State Senator named Will Haskell, who’s a member of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, took the event to make the principle level:
We can’t await Washington to step up and save the planet!
However how precisely is Connecticut going to perform that? In any case, it has a inhabitants of solely about 3.6 million. Its greenhouse fuel emissions are within the vary of about 41 MMTCO2e per yr, which is effectively lower than 0.1% of complete world annual emissions of about 49,000 MMTCO2e. You may zero out Connecticut’s emissions solely, and it wouldn’t even quantity to a rounding error on this planet complete. Certainly, the rise that happens annually in China’s CO2 emissions is a a number of of Connecticut’s complete emissions. (In line with Our World in Information right here, from 2019 to 2020, newest years given, China’s CO2 emissions went from 10.49 to 10.67 billion tons, a one-year enhance of about 180 million tons, or effectively greater than 4 occasions the full annual emissions of Connecticut.)
However our heroes in Connecticut are usually not going to let such mere statistics discourage them. They’ve a plan. And the plan, included because the central characteristic within the new Clear Air Act, is to impress the state’s fleet of autos, notably its metropolis buses and college buses. Right here is state Transportation Commissioner Joe Giuletti talking on the July 22 occasion, quoted within the New Haven Register:
“There are roughly 800 buses that we’re accountable for on the DOT which might be being changed with no-emissions electrical fashions. They’re quieter, they emit no emissions and so they last more,” Giulietti stated Friday.
Governor Lamont additionally issued an announcement emphasizing that the brand new regulation would result in conversion of all of the state buses to electrical inside just a few years:
Along with the electrical state-run buses, public college buses will even shift to electrical fashions, in accordance with the governor’s assertion. The Clear Air Act will even prohibit the procurement of diesel-powered buses after 2023, in accordance with the assertion.
I notably loved this assertion from Transportation Commissioner Giuletti, this time quoted on the web site of tv station WTNH:
Division of Transportation Commissioner Joe Giulietti remarked, “it’s so good to listen to a bus that’s behind you that’s not making the noise or emitting any of the air, both the propane or the diesel fumes.”
Observe the clear implication that Giuletti has by no means really ridden on one among these metropolis buses himself, nor would he ever deign to try this. Metropolis buses are for the little individuals. It’s simply that when he will get close to one, he desires it to be extra appropriate to his elite esthetic.
The New Haven Register added that the brand new electrical bus program represents a build-out of a pilot program that started with the supply of some 12 electrical buses in 2020. The Register quotes Connecticut Transportation Division spokesman Josh Morgan:
“The primary battery electrical buses got here into service within the fall of 2020,” Morgan stated. “At present, there are 12 electrical buses in Connecticut. . . .”
After which, as luck would have it, on the very subsequent day, July 23, a type of 12 electrical buses already in Connecticut’s fleet immediately exploded into flames whereas sitting in a parking zone within the city of Hamden. Here’s a image of the occasion, courtesy of the Hamden Fireplace Division:
It’s actually fairly one thing when a type of massive lithium-ion batteries immediately explodes into flames. As traditional with these lithium fires, they couldn’t extinguish it with water or the rest, and so they simply needed to let it burn itself out.
“Lithium ion battery fires are troublesome to extinguish because of the thermal chemical course of that produces nice warmth and frequently reignites,” Hamden fireplace officers stated.
Fortuitously, nobody was on the bus, and it was out of service on a Saturday morning.
The Connecticut officers reacted to the incident by instantly pulling all the electrical bus fleet from service. The Register quotes CT Transit spokesman Josh Rickman:
“The significance of rider security is demonstrated by taking these buses out of service and guaranteeing an intensive investigation is accomplished previous to any redeployment of the fleet,” Rickman stated.
Learn the total article right here.
