Public Health, NIMBY & Powering the Dreams of the Electric Car

"I'm not an activist, an alarmist, a Democrat, environmentalist or anything like that. I'm just a person who isn't able to manage the health of my family because of all this drilling."

Kelly Gant, whose says her children have had severe asthma attacks and headaches since a gas well was set up near her house in Bartonville, Tex.

This is not  directly a transportation example of conflict between infrastructure placement and environmental values. However, it is the most passionate and reasoned comment that can be understood by everyone, from the media, policymakers to business leaders. Gas rig drilling is one strategy that will power the dreams and engines of the electric car. Often in public policy seeming 'solutions' to one problem only displace costs and create new problems. This is worth the read.

Read the rest of the story in the original New York Times article here.

300,000 people bid for 20,000 license plates in Beijing

"300,000 people in Beijing apply for second round of number drawing, with a 5.7% chance of getting a license plate. The second round of application for passenger car quota in Beijing ended yesterday. There are 306,865 individual applications and 13,386 corporate applications from 7,108 enterprises. The chance of getting quota for license plate in the second round of number drawing is 5.7%.

Beijing municipal government issued a new policy to relieve traffic jam at the end of 2010. The quota for newly added motor vehicles in Beijing in 2011 is restricted to 240,000. People who want to buy new cars have to file applications before getting license plates through number drawing.

In the first round of public number drawing, 17,600 individual applications, or 8.37% of the total, are picked. The remaining unselected applications are automatically transferred to the second round, in addition to the newly added 137,045 individual applications. The second round of number drawing will be carried out on February 26."

The original article with commentary may be found here

For more on cars and China go to http://www.chinacartimes.com

Joe Coughlin