Living Like Ed
Page 8
We finally made it to the hospital, with time to spare, but you never know about these things. My feeling is, get natural gas on your own time, buddy! Not when I’m in labor.
I’m not sure our marriage could have survived all this craziness for too many years. Thank goodness the car companies have come out with some really good green vehicles that are easy to live with, like my Prius and Ed’s Phoenix SUT.
Well, Rachelle may be a bit dramatic about all this, but she does bring up a good point. If you’re determined to use the greener fuel and avoid using gasoline, then a natural gas flex-fuel vehicle probably is not your best choice.
Natural gas does have some distinct advantages, though:
• It emits 60 to 90 percent less smog-producing pollutants than gasoline.
• It emits 30 to 40 percent less greenhouse gases.
• It’s less expensive than gasoline.
However, natural gas intrinsically has less energy than gasoline, and that means you can’t travel as far on a single tank of fuel. Also, flex-fuel vehicles have to have two separate fuel tanks (one for gasoline or diesel and the other for natural gas), so that cuts into your cargo-carrying space.
Propane
Propane is another clean-burning fossil fuel. Like natural gas, it’s still a limited resource, but, again, it comes primarily from domestic sources—85 percent of the time. A propane-powered vehicle—such as a forklift or a propane-powered personal vehicle—runs much cleaner than one powered by gasoline. Propane is derived from crude oil, so it’s not as environmentally friendly in many ways as other alternative fuels. But it is definitely cleaner. Vehicles powered by propane produce fewer toxic and smog-forming emissions, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is less expensive than gasoline.
You can retrofit a gasoline or diesel vehicle to burn LPG—or to burn natural gas, for that matter. And propane is relatively easy to find. You just go to the same place you would go to refill the propane tank for your barbecue or your space heater.
For a while, no one was offering a vehicle that operated solely on propane. Then a company called Roush, a supplier to the automakers that has a long-standing relationship with Ford, introduced the 2007.5 Roush Ford F-150. It’s got a liquid propane injection (LPI) system. Roush converts a Ford F-150 pickup with the 5.4-liter Triton V-8 engine to run on propane, and the truck’s got the same horsepower and torque ratings as the gas version. You even order it and have it serviced at a Ford dealer. So it should be about as easy to live with as the gas-powered version of this truck, while reducing emissions.
Biodiesel
Traditional diesel fuel has been a big problem. What we’ve suspected for years—what your nose and lungs tell you, what your breathing apparatus tells you—is that diesel emissions are very bad for your health. And now that’s been proven.
The problem is the particulate matter (PM) that comes out of a diesel vehicle’s tailpipe. The allowable threshold for this sooty matter has changed. Once upon a time it could be up to PM 10; that’s 10 microns in size. Now nothing over 21?2 microns is allowed, and it’s a fraction of the width of a human hair. Still, diesel exhaust has a lot of PM 2.5, and these little particles are very damaging to your lungs. Because they’re so small, they get in there really deep and really far.
Clean diesel has a lot less sulfur in it than traditional diesel fuel, and that’s a step in the right direction. Still, we’ve long viewed “clean diesel” as an oxy-moron, because even the clean diesel is made from traditional crude oil products, so it’s just not as clean as so many other things available today, including natural gas. Electric cars are much cleaner, as are hybrids.
However, there is something called biodiesel that’s cleaner than clean diesel—and, more important, it’s not refined from crude oil, like regular diesel fuel. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases. You can even take vegetable oil, refine it slightly in your garage, and then run your car on it. That burns pretty clean.
But keep in mind, on the plus and minus sides, even biodiesel emissions have some PM 2.5 and NOx, that is to say, oxides of nitrogen in it. If it’s made from vegetable oil, I imagine it’s less harmful than crude oil particles, but the exhaust still contains particulate matter that’s not good for your lungs. Simply stated, the tailpipe of a hybrid is cleaner than the tailpipe of a biodiesel car.
The reason I mentioned biodiesel at all is because it’s not a refined product coming from crude oil. There’re none of the challenges that we get with Mideast oil and all the many forms of pollution that come from drilling and what have you. But I’m not strongly in favor of biodiesel either, because there’s an energy stream that’s involved in making biodiesel. It’s made from new corn and new soybeans, which are harvested with lots of John Deere equipment, which may or may not run on biodiesel. All the equipment used to harvest the crops—and all the fossil fuels used to make the fertilizers to grow the corn and the soybeans—tax the environment, too. Now, biodiesel can be good for U.S. farmers—it’s a great cash crop for them—and I want to support the farmers just like Willie Nelson does. I want clean fuel, and I want to help the farmers, too. But maybe we can help the farmers in other ways, by making biodiesel from AG (agricultural) waste. Grow the corn to feed people, and what have you got left? A big old cornstalk, a huge stalk with lots of cellulose in it that can be turned into biodiesel. Lots of other crops have AG waste that can be used to make biodiesel, too. It’s another win-win.
Maybe we also can help farmers by having them plant switchgrass, which is so easy to grow, it grows wild. If we can make the biodiesel from switch-grass or from AG waste, then I’m really in favor of it. It’s much more desirable economically, environmentally, in every way.
Even as is, biodiesel is biodegradable and nontoxic, so if it does spill, it doesn’t require a hazardous waste cleanup program.
In short, biodiesel has great promise. And can they clean up the problem with oxides of nitrogen in biodiesel exhaust? Absolutely. Can they clean up the problems with PM 2.5 in biodiesel? No question. And they should right away, because that’s something you can address with a particulate trap—an existing technology.
You can use biodiesel in its pure form, 100 percent biodiesel, also called B100. But few people do. The people who manufacture biodiesel usually blend it with petroleum diesel. The most common blends are B2 (2 percent biodiesel), B5, and B20.
Most vehicle manufacturers do not recommend using blends greater than 5 percent. In fact, using a higher blend will void some engine warranties. Car companies generally do say that B2 and B5 can be used safely in most diesel engines.
Ethanol Blends
Ethanol is a type of alcohol, like methanol. It’s made by fermenting and distilling starch crops, like corn—or what’s known as cellulosic biomass, like trees and grasses—so it’s similar to biodiesel in terms of what it’s made of, and it too is made domestically. It burns very clean—reducing greenhouse gas emissions—and because you’re using that much less fossil fuel, you’re again reducing dependence on foreign oil.
But while biodiesel can be used only in a diesel engine, some ethanol can be used in any gasoline engine—and there are far more gasoline-engine vehicles on the road today than there are diesels, especially in the United States. All of the car companies have approved the use of E10—also called gasohol— in their cars and trucks. E10 is a blend made of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline, so running E10 will not affect your vehicle’s warranty. It’s okay to use it in any gas-powered car or truck. That alone makes ethanol a desirable alternative fuel, since it’s usable, at least to a degree, in so many vehicles.
Many vehicles on the road right now are also designed to run on a blend called E85, which is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Most of these vehicles are flex-fuel vehicles, so you can run them on E85, on gasoline, or on any combination of the two.
The only real drawback to these flex-fuel vehicles is that their engine management computers haven’t b
een programmed to run exclusively on E85. That means your gas mileage could drop as much as 25 percent when you run E85 instead of gas, because ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline.
On the plus side, E85 is cheaper than gasoline, especially in the Midwest. And because it has a higher octane content, you may experience more power from your engine by running E85. (If your car has a problem with pinging, or detonation, it may also benefit by running some ethanol.) Unfortunately, it’s not the easiest fuel to find, but there are several hundred filling stations selling E85 across the country. It’s the chicken-and-the-egg thing. The reason they are not making great quantities of the fuel and not many stations sell it is because they figure, “There’s not many cars that run on it. We’re not gonna put up any stations.” Now that several automakers, including GM, are making flex-fuel vehicles that run on E85, I’m sure we’ll start to see more stations that sell E85.
To Fly or Not to Fly
At the very bottom of my transportation hierarchy—and with good reason—is air travel. Simply put, I’d rather not fly. It’s not that I’m afraid. Statistically, it’s safer in the sky than it is on a highway. I just don’t like to fly at 31,000 feet burning kerosene.
That’s right, that’s what jet fuel is: kerosene with a mold retardant. When it’s burned, it emits all these pollutants:
• carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a leading cause of global warming
• oxides of nitrogen
• sulfur dioxide
• soot
• water vapor
Emitting all that CO2 is bad enough, but experts say the cock-tail created by those other emissions may double airplanes’ total impact on climate change.
And unlike pollution created at street level, there are no trees up in the stratosphere to mitigate that CO2, that pollution. What happens to it? How does it affect global climate change? Some studies suggest it could be quite damaging.
Mile for mile, driving a very clean hybrid—with its low tailpipe emissions—just plain creates less pollutants in the air than your share of that plane ride will.
The mileage is not bad when you fly, if you’re in one of the more efficient planes, and if you take off and land without a lot of circling. You can get 50-some-odd miles per gallon. But you’re burning kerosene. And you’ve seen jets. When you’re behind a jet, the exhaust smells a little different from what comes out of a hybrid car.
Sure, there are a lot of people on an airplane. But compare it to a Greyhound bus. A Greyhound bus runs on diesel fuel, usually, and when you average it out, it gets about 400 mpg, because there are usually seventy-some-odd people on it. You’re getting really good mileage, given the relatively light weight of a Greyhound bus and the relatively small amount of fuel it consumes per passenger. Jet engines burn through a lot more fuel, so even when they’re full, their mileage is nowhere near as good—just 50 to 60 mpg. And again, they’re burning kerosene.
So I only fly when I must. If at all possible I’d much rather drive the hybrid than fly.
The most challenging part of living with Ed has been adjusting to his transportation issues. It’s gotten better, since we have hybrids and better electric cars and better cars in general—even the gasoline-burning cars are much cleaner.
But someone gave Ed grief once while he was waiting to board a plane: “Oh, some environmentalist you are. Flying in an airplane,” and now there’s no flying anymore. We got invited to these elaborate four-day weekend trips to Venice with all of Hollywood, all expenses paid. The invitations alone were so beautiful you wanted to frame them. But no, can’t go. And inside I was thinking, “Oh, I hate you so much. I just hate you.”
Another time, we got invited to Alaska, and Ed was going to drive there. But he had just had his femur reset from an accident, and the doctors said, “If you drive, you will be crippled for the rest of your life.” So I got a campaign of people to call Ed and say, “You know, you should probably see what you’re preserving once before it changes,” because he had never been to Alaska. We got to go on that trip, but not without a lot of, ahem, persuasion.
I like to drive. I like the highway, the solitude, the peace, the changing scenery. And if I get from L.A. to Vancouver for $90, I’m laughing. When I have to go on a trip for an acting job, I’ll call up the production company and say, “How much will you reimburse me for the airfare? $830? You mind if I drive? Will you give me the money?” So they give me $830 and it cost me $180 round-trip, and I’m $650 in the black before I’ve said a single line of dialogue.
I’ll drive to New York. I’ll drive to Philadelphia. I’d prefer to drive anywhere, rather than fly, if I’ve got the time. And I can usually make the time.
I drove cross-country with Ed a couple of times. Most people do that once in a lifetime, right? But no, that’s a pretty common occurrence for Ed.
Me, I fly. I figure the plane’s going there anyway. It’s not like I like to fly, and I’m not jumping on a plane all the time. Actually, I really don’t like to fly. That shows you how much I really don’t like to drive. It’s too boring. Maybe if Ed let me drive, I’d have a little more interest. And he never goes above the speed limit, 55 or 65 all the way. It’s absolute torture.
So we’ve worked out a compromise: One drives, one flies. Whatever it takes to make it all work, you know. He might be a little tired when he gets where we’re going, but at least he knows where his luggage is. He does take steps to offset the pollution whenever I fly—or on those rare occasions when I’m able to get him on a plane.
When I do have to fly—or when Rachelle chooses to fly—there’s something I do to mitigate the CO2 foot-print, the carbon footprint, from all that kerosene being burned at 31,000 feet. What I do is I get a TerraPass flight tag. I’ll let my friend Adam Stein from TerraPass explain what a carbon footprint is and how TerraPass offsets it.
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Ed’s Green Friend: TerraPass
Climate change is a global problem with a local cause. Almost everything we do requires energy in one form or another. And that energy, more often than not, comes from fossil fuels.
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It’s possible for each of us to quantify our own contribution to global warming. We all have a carbon footprint, named after carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Your carbon footprint is the total of all the greenhouse gas emissions caused by your daily activities.
Driving is one source of greenhouse gas emissions, but it isn’t the only one. Most likely your home uses just as much energy as your car. Heating your house and keeping the lights on has just as much impact as driving.
Another big source of greenhouse gas emissions is plane travel. Flying is fast, cheap, and polluting. A round-trip flight between New York and Los Angeles burns about 100 gallons of kerosene per passenger. TerraPass allows you to use carbon offsets to lighten your climate change footprint.
What is a carbon offset? Although a complex topic, it is a simple thing. A carbon offset represents the reduction of one ton of carbon dioxide emissions. When you buy an offset, you fund that reduction in emissions.
Carbon offsets typically come from clean energy or efficiency projects. For example, wind farms create clean electricity that displaces electricity from coal. A utility company receives power from a wind farm, so it can produce that much less power by burning coal. The result is a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Wind farms generate clean electricity. They also generate carbon offsets.
The important feature of highquality carbon offsets is that they represent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that would not have happened otherwise. High-quality carbon offsets are a means of hastening our transition to a clean energy infrastructure. High-quality offset vendors, such as TerraPass, use a variety of verification techniques, including independent audits, to ensure that the offsets have the intended effect.
There are lots of things you can do to lower your energy use. But you can’t reduce your energy use to zero, which is where ca
rbon offsets come into play. You can use carbon offsets to balance out the emissions you can’t eliminate through personal conservation.
Ed is a perfect example. His personal carbon footprint is very low, because he generates his own solar electricity and drives an electric car. But for longer trips, he drives a hybrid car, which runs on gasoline. And for really long trips, he and Rachelle fly.
To balance out the emissions from these activities, Ed buys a TerraPass. TerraPass makes products designed to balance emissions from driving, flying, and home energy use. By purchasing a TerraPass, Ed funds verified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions so that he can travel carbonbalanced. More important, he helps move us a little further down the road toward clean energy.
—Adam Stein
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Essentially, TerraPass goes to the marketplace and buys new clean power—solar power, wind power, something that does not emit CO2—then that clean power gets fed into the grid, augmenting what is created by utility companies.
Maybe you’re thinking, “That’s kind of a feel-good thing, but is it really doing anything?”
Let me be clear: It does not negate the real pollution created from a tailpipe of a car or from somebody’s home energy use or from air travel. That’s real. That’s out there. You’re not taking that away. But neither are you taking away the green power that they’re putting in the system. That’s real, too. And over time, that could balance out and account for the closure of power plants. At some point, they’ll be shutting down coal plants because they have sufficient power coming from clean sources. (We’ll go into this more in Chapter 4, “Energy.”) If every air passenger bought a TerraPass each time he or she flew, it would be a very real contribution to creating greener energy for all of us.