Ethanol Is No Substitute For Real Transportation Planning

The American transportation system is not only dated, but it also has a huge impact on the climate. The favored solution -- ethanol -- is no solution at all, writes New York Observer columnist Nicholas von Hoffman.

1 minute read

April 11, 2007, 10:00 AM PDT

By Michael Dudley


"The other day the French, who we Americans know cannot do anything right, sent one of their trains hurtling down a railroad track at 357 miles per hour. France has more than 1,000 miles of high-speed railroad track. The United States does not have one inch."

"The United States sticks with its climate-warming, congested and inefficient Eisenhower-era transportation system. It was back then that the modern federal highway was begun and it was decided -- perhaps by default -- that cars and airplanes would be the nation's people carriers and choo-choos would chug off to the nearest transportation museum."

"Americans, who seem to spend an ever greater percentage of their waking hours bragging about how much better they are than everybody else, have not noticed they are falling behind."

"The global-warming naysayers would have us believe there is a one-shot, magic cure that will preserve the earth in a coolly livable form without our having to do anything or change our ways or spend any money. For the time being the magic cure is ethanol."

Monday, April 9, 2007 in The Nation

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