grue

It's funny how he takes the most prominent issue that cuts across liberal vs. leftist ideological lines — anybody can be a NIMBY — and then blames it solely on the leftists.

☝This, and also even if they didn't suck for the reasons you wrote, they would still be unacceptable because they further enable the surveillance state.

E85 is inefficient to make in the US because the climate isn't right to grow sugarcane (except in Hawaii and maybe south Florida, I guess?). I hear it works pretty well in Brazil, though.

The biofuel that makes sense for US farmers to produce is biodiesel, but unfortunately relatively few vehicles are diesel.

IMO biodiesel is the solution we should be pursuing for things like aviation, rural car owners, and as an interim fuel for long-haul trucking (until it can be abolished in favor of going back to trains) that are relatively hard to electrify.

That's just straight with extra steps!

It's at least true that biofuels made from fast-growing crops like soy or sugar cane are carbon neutral (if you assume the farm equipment also runs on biofuel and no other petroleum-derived inputs are used) because they're part of the short-term carbon cycle, right?

If so — if the cut-off for "renewable" is definitely longer than a year, definitely shorter than millions of years, and apparently also shorter than hundreds of years — then I'd like to know where scientists (not industry shills) have decided it actually lies. Would the forest industry's position be valid in the context of e.g. a slash pine tree farm?

Honestly, I'm inclined to see a very strong distinction between burning wood and burning fossil methane, as long as you're not talking about chopping down an old-growth forest or something like that. (And as long as the methane you're comparing to isn't from a short-term cycle source like landfill gas, for that matter.)

My lowly non-NYCer opinion is that that sounds like a reason to crack down on sidewalk riding, rather than the speed.

IMO, it should be 20mph, but it’s a software limit. It’s nothing to “tune” it.

You're talking about vehicles that typically aren't open source and don't have a firmware update mechanism. There is no reason to expect they're even possible to change without swapping out the entire controller.

This feels like it's purposefully designed to kneecap the adoption of e-bikes by rendering all class 1 and 2 e-bikes illegal and making it harder/more expensive to buy new ones because they have to have bespoke detuning for the NYC market.

They do improve it, but it's a marginal gain, as opposed to the big transformational win for the environment that comes from switching to a different transportation mode.

They're just saying that because the CEO said it, but what the Hell does he know? It's not as if he's in charge of the company!

Oh wait.

Can any city enter? If so, I like Atlanta's chances.

My neighborhood is better because it has brick oven pizzerias and craft breweries.

I'm in Atlanta.