Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Vehicle Projects LLC are developing fuel cell trains which not only will reduce emissions but can also be used to generate backup off-grid power.

Here’s the key reasons that fuel cell trains make so much sense.

Locomotives travel predictable miles and refuel in predictable places along the miles of railway tracks. The hydrogen railway infrastructure that needs to be set up for trains is minimal compared to the hydrogen highway system.

And, replacing the emissions from diesel engine trains with zero emissions fuel cell locomotives makes environmental sense and energy independence sense.

Railroads are 19th century inventions that are making a huge comeback because of their ability to haul enormous amounts of stuff at very low cost. Fuel cell trains allow this to be done without using oil or emitting carbon. In Denmark, plans are to have fuel cell trains powered by waste hydrogen from manufacturing or hydrogen generated from wind power. Wow.

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So, are any of the candidates going to talk about the issues in a substantive way, or do we  instead get ten months of sleazy attacks, innuendos, distortion, and nothing real?

I think we all know the answer. And I’m already tired of the campaigns. Imagine what October will be like.  Non-stop attack ads.

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Denver Post calls FBI “The Keystone Cops”

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A UK study purports to show that early-adopter green consumers have a bigger carbon footprint than the general populace, primarily due to them owning cars and taking plane flights. They imply this is due to hypocrisy or shallow commitment, but the real reason unquestionably is because such consumers are more affluent.

We don’t need to reduce lifestyles for some as much as we need to raise it for others, and to do so in a clean, renewable energy way.

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“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.”

It was only a few weeks ago that most analysts were still saying there would be no recession. Blogs like Calculated Risk, Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis, The Big Picture were way ahead of mainstream financial news media in accurately reporting the financial devastation triggered by subprime.

Merrill Lynch and Citigroup are expected to write off “tens of billions,” a number that keeps growing, when they report earnings this week. No one really knows how much more of this toxic debt is out there. This is one reason that interbank lending rates have risen sharply, no one trusts the financial stability of any one else now.

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(Shaghai maglev train)

Fortunately, during the next century we may be able to afford green mobility. In fact, we can clearly see its elements: cars, powered by fuels cells; aeroplanes, powered by hydrogen; and maglevs, powered by electricity, probably nuclear. The future looks clean, fast, and green.

Yes, such a future is possible. I get so freaking tired of reading predictions for the future filled with gloom, saying we’ll live sharply reduced lifestyles and this will be our penance for our wanton, profligate ways. You want to live in a yurt? Great, but spare me the Old Testament moralizing about how we deserve to be doomed. Instead, let’s do as this NYT blog post details, figure out clean, green ways to do what we need to get done. Moving large numbers of people with clean, renewable energy mass transit would be a huge step forward - and it can be done.

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