Boring
My life has been quite dull lately, so I thought I would post a relatively interesting passage from a paper I just wrote.
Political considerations aside, Gordon and Richardson raise some interesting points regarding energy and transit use. Construction of transit systems are very energy-intensive endeavors, to the point that some result in net increases in consumption. The I-205 light rail project, for example, will consume slightly less than three trillion BTU of energy during construction,1 and will result in a net savings of only 966 million BTU annually by 2025. (Operations will use 327.967 billion BTU annually in 2025, vs. 328.993 billion under the no-build scenario. 1 BTU is equal to 125,000 gallons of gasoline). It will take approximately 3,000 years for I-205 MAX to “pay for itself” based on these estimations. Is it worth it? No one is claiming that energy savings alone should justify the project, but it is noteworthy that the EIS considers construction consumption an indirect impact, while only operating consumption is direct.
Discuss.
Jalalablog 
TSS said,
May 24, 2006 at 9:41 pm
My cat’s breath smells like cat food.
LogJammin said,
May 25, 2006 at 3:50 am
“Are [you] recommending the Beijingization of U.S. cities to reinfoce [your] Maoist planning methods?…Perhaps [you] would be well advised to seek out another planet, preferably unpopulated, where [you] can build [your] compact cities from scratch with solar-powered transit.”
ps. Guess you were wrong about Oregon not having any coal-fired power plants…in a BIG way!
JB said,
May 25, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Yeah, I told you about that thing you sent me and then claimed credit for, remember?