> I'd rather have better fuel economy and cleaner environment
> with a Genset and other "green" things than without.


I would agree wholeheartedly with that!

Indeed, I am wondering why public transits that use diesel locomotives have not already adopted a genset/hybrid technology as standard. It is a no-brainer perfect match, for the start-stop start-stop type of operations typical of local passenger trains of any sort. Significant fuel cost savings could result, while sharply reducing pollution.

So does that mean I can consider myself to be promoted from caveman to. . . . .uh? . . .what am I now - I didn't see that part in your post.


But on the other hand, there are usually at least two sides to every issue; all worthy of respect.

In fact - Not all green things are so "green" Such as MTBE and ethanol in the gasoline - both a completely made up farce, making a lot of people a lot of money (including railroads) in return for something that has no benefit to the environment whatsoever, nor to the economy. They in fact, hurt the environment, as well as the economy (skyrocketing corn and food prices for example).

There is significantly less energy content per gallon of ethanol than in gasoline; reducing your mileage accordingly. MTBE has a similar net effect in gasoline. It is true enough - that the pollution produced by burning a gallon of "Treated" gasoline is less (that's how they measure the pollution of fuels); but so is the resultant mileage, meaning that much more gasoline must be consumed to in order to do the same job. All such so-called environmental benefits are thus totally negated.

Worse yet, MTBE has itself proven to be a very serious pollutant in its own right (similar effect to PCBs); contaminating streams and rivers, and has even tainted well water in California. As to ethanol, its production process releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - orders of magnitude more CO2 per gallon, than CO2 emitted by burning a gallon of untreated gasoline.

Simply put - some "green things" ain't really green! And those things are often actually harming the environment even worse than untreated gasoline. But they sure do make some people rich in the mean time! And the rest of us generally poorer.

OH DARN - does that mean I am back to being a caveman again?