Actual railfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hit send a little too quickly. I was trying to
> copy and paste a line from that section for those
> who may not want to follow a link but the PDF is
> not allowing me to copy (could be an issue with my
> browser). I'll paraphrase by noting the
> referenced section states 80% of the NOx emissions
> in the shortline sector come from pre Tier 0
> locomotives.
>
> That tells me old fleets such as the Trona's have
> a bullseye on them in this proposed regulation.


While "80 percent of the emissions from the short line sector", seems like a "number" that makes it "sound like" it is a "huge" "percantage" of "something"....

It is really an excellent example of the kind of bureaucratic sophistry that easily impress our typically innumerate politician, the public, and the press....

As that seemingly "high percentage" of NOx emissions (from "how many" actual locomotives, operating how many hours a day????) will likely ads up to a real amout that is probably about a millionth of the total amount of the daily NOx emissions in the total emissions inventory statewide...

That is, at least when you get done looking at it, in the context of the millions of things that really generate significant amounts of NOx like container ships, heavy duty diesel engines, water heaters, and power plants, or even from some already highly controlled sources like combustion power automobiles....

There are simply not that many of these exempt locomotives running on any short lines anymore. And from the math lot's of these folks didn't seem to learn in junior high, remember that multiplying 80% times something that is already so small that it is almost nothing, is even less...

There was a great book called "How To Lie With Statistics" that showed all of these kinds tricks using big "percentages" to make people think something was actually "big". It's the kind of seemingly "math-like" phony percentage comparisons you often see in deceptive advertising.