Towards a Unified Theory of American Problems
AP (via CNN) this morning provides evidence that our economic woes are tied to our national security problems and our environmental issues. The article, entitled "Planes Slow Down to Save Fuel," states that several airlines are slowing their aircraft (by approximately 10mph) in order to save fuel. According to the article, this change, while adding just minutes to the average flight, can save hundreds of gallons of fuel. Airlines mentioned in the article are said to be saving in the tens of millions of dollars per year on fuel.
What the article does not acknowledge is the reduced carbon footprint that goes hand in hand with the cost savings. It's pretty obvious though: use less fuel, produce less CO2. The EPA says that fossil fuel consumption made up about 94 percent (pdf) of CO2 emissions from the US in 2006. According to Wikipedia, the aviation industry is responsible for 11 percent of greenhouse gases (mostly CO2) emitted by the transportation sector in the US. This makes it about 3.6 percent of the total CO2 emissions in the US (again using the 2006 figures (pdf)).
Jet fuel produces approximately 23 pounds of CO2 per gallon. So saving 162 gallons of fuel (from the article) not only saves the airline $535, but it spares us 3726 lbs of CO2.
This is evidence that a very small change (minutes per flight) can have a significant economic impact, reduce our carbon footprint, and simply by virtue of conserving help to ease our dependency on foreign oil.
If JetBlue saves $13.6 million in fuel per year and they pay about $3 per gallon (at a guess), that could mean as much as 4.5 million gallons of fuel conserved by a single airline. And of course, the less we use, the less money we send overseas. It's interesting to note that this conservation need not be motivated by politics or concern for the environment. Pure economics is enough to drive the change in this case, but the by-products are great.
Addendum 5/3/08: McCain claims to have an energy policy that will end our dependency on foreign oil and admits that (well, ok, the first one anyway) the gulf war was about oil.
What the article does not acknowledge is the reduced carbon footprint that goes hand in hand with the cost savings. It's pretty obvious though: use less fuel, produce less CO2. The EPA says that fossil fuel consumption made up about 94 percent (pdf) of CO2 emissions from the US in 2006. According to Wikipedia, the aviation industry is responsible for 11 percent of greenhouse gases (mostly CO2) emitted by the transportation sector in the US. This makes it about 3.6 percent of the total CO2 emissions in the US (again using the 2006 figures (pdf)).
Jet fuel produces approximately 23 pounds of CO2 per gallon. So saving 162 gallons of fuel (from the article) not only saves the airline $535, but it spares us 3726 lbs of CO2.
This is evidence that a very small change (minutes per flight) can have a significant economic impact, reduce our carbon footprint, and simply by virtue of conserving help to ease our dependency on foreign oil.
If JetBlue saves $13.6 million in fuel per year and they pay about $3 per gallon (at a guess), that could mean as much as 4.5 million gallons of fuel conserved by a single airline. And of course, the less we use, the less money we send overseas. It's interesting to note that this conservation need not be motivated by politics or concern for the environment. Pure economics is enough to drive the change in this case, but the by-products are great.
Addendum 5/3/08: McCain claims to have an energy policy that will end our dependency on foreign oil and admits that (well, ok, the first one anyway) the gulf war was about oil.
Labels: news, unified theory
posted by jason at
10:33 AM
Sphere: Related Content
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home