apple juice

To sell his vision of a high-speed train network to the American public, President Barack Obama this week cited Spain, a country most people dont associate with futuristic bullet trains.

via Spains Bullet Train Changes Nation — and Fast – WSJ.com.

Great article about the progress Spain has made with regards to rail travel. This is exactly the type of transformation we could experience here in America.

The government has identified 10 corridors, each from 100 to 600 miles long, with greatest promise for high-speed development.

They are: a northern New England line; an Empire line running east to west in New York State; a Keystone corridor running laterally through Pennsylvania; a major Chicago hub network; a southeast network connecting the District of Columbia to Florida and the Gulf Coast; a Gulf Coast line extending from eastern Texas to western Alabama; a corridor in central and southern Florida; a Texas-to-Oklahoma line; a California corridor where voters have already approved a line that will allow travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two and a half hours; and a corridor in the Pacific Northwest.

via Obama Seeks High-Speed Rail System for U.S. – NYTimes.com.

Emphasis mine. Great news! Here’s to hoping that train trips to Duluth and Chicago are in the near future!

A Minnesota biofuels company that has attracted visits from financiers, scientists, customers and the federal government has produced a clean diesel fuel from algae harvested from a pond next door to its Anoka County plant.

via Pond full of scum produces a tank full of cheap diesel.

Trying to find some now!

With $8 billion in federal grants for high-speed rail corridors and intercity passenger rail up for grabs, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday ordered a statewide study to determine the best rail projects for which Minnesota should pursue stimulus funding.

via It’s full steam ahead on Minnesota rail plans.

I’m pretty sure that this is the same Gov. Pawlenty that has tried to, uh, derail, these projects in the past, but whatever… there’s no time like the present!

I’m waiting at Dunn Brothers while my new tires get installed at the Southwest Firestone.

I purchased the Bridgestone Ecopia EP100s for my Golf… after not really too much research 🙂

They are a brand-new tire developed (marketed) as a “green” option for tires. Since the Golf gets very good mileage, I thought, why not try to maximize that a bit with tires?

Think of Ecopia as a bold step forward. It’s an environmentally conscious tire designed to improve rolling resistance, which will help passenger cars achieve better gas mileage — without sacrificing the smooth, quiet ride or reliable wet handling you’ve come to expect from Bridgestone tires.

(says the marketing materials)

Barry at Southwest Firestone says that it’s the first set of Ecopia’s they’ve sold, so I’ll take your thanks in advance on being a guinea pig for a brand-new tire.

I’ll have to report back on how they actually perform, but I’m excited to take a good road trip and see what happens. I’m switching from a fairly high-performance tire (more sticky, less mpg) to this tire, so my expections may be a bit too high in terms of the cornering performance, for example.

But, the first time I drive up to the cabin and get a 50+mpg tank, I’ll be pretty happy! 🙂

With $8 billion in the federal stimulus package devoted to high-speed rail projects, supporters of the long-planned high-speed train from Chicago to St. Paul are scrambling to prepare a proposal strong enough to grab some of that money.

via High-speed train from Chicago: Next stop, Minneapolis?.

It wasn’t clear to me if this was “High-Speed” as the US Government currently defines it… 89mph I think. Or if it was High Speed as the Japanese might define it.

Update: After reading the article a bit closer, it’s 110mph, as is the current government definition… it would be a 5 1/2 hour trip.

Either way, great news for traveling out of minneapolis/st. paul to chicago. And great news for rail around the country.

I knew something was fishy when the bloomington schools canceled school last week because of “biodiesel” when every other school bus in the state uses the same 2% biodiesel. (As mandated by law)

And, yep, as it turns out:

Citing an independent study, the Minnesota Department of Commerce reiterated today that biodiesel was not the culprit that caused school buses in Bloomington, Minn. to malfunction last week.

Now… if only I could get 100% biodiesel again this summer!