Plug-in HybridsReview of: Plug-in Hybrids: The cars that will recharge America
By: Sherry Boschert
New Society Publishers, 2006, 230 pages
Review by: Jason Hayes, M.E.Des., Communications Director, American Coal Council
With gas prices hovering somewhere between $3.50 and $4.50 a gallon over the past several months, strained budgets are making for strange bedfellows.
Gas, electricity, energy security, our automobiles, and the environment; in both our world and this book, they're all linked. In Plug-in Hybrids Boschert follows a few of the people who are working to address energy shortages and rising fuel prices through the early adoption of electric vehicles (EV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).
The book opens with Chelsea Sexton weeping over the untimely “death” of her friend. It was through her connection with this friend that Sexton had found employment, met her husband, and now had a young son. More than that, we learn as we read that Sexton's contact with this friend had set the tone for much of her life interest. Now Sexton, an “automotive insider,” was responsible for giving the eulogy at her friend's funeral service. But this was no ordinary funeral service, and Sexton's friend wasn't flesh and blood. Her friend was her car and the movement that it represented.
Sexton had worked as part of the General Motors (GM) engineering and marketing teams that created the EV1 – GM's first foray into the electric vehicle world and their initial answer to the issue of improving automotive efficiency and decreasing emissions. It was a full, battery only, EV and managed to gain the respect of many across the nation. In the end, however, GM canceled (or at least delayed) their EV car program and demanded that the cars be returned. Thus the funeral service as Sexton and others said goodbye to their work and their friend.
Through this personal look into the lives of the people in the hybrid and EV movement, Boschert has created an effective medium to promote interest in EVs and PHEVs. Throughout the book, she takes a look at the lives and work of others in the hybrid community, including:
From the RailTrends website,
Attend the truly unique two day event, RailTrends 2008, and meet the most influential industry experts accelerating the pace towards market transformation.
Presented by Progressive Railroading magazine
This two-day summit is designed specifically for the needs of Railroaders, Suppliers, Equipment Lessors, Finance Institutions, shippers and others with an interest and stake in the growth of the industry.RailTrends 2008 will provide industry executives a comprehensive overview of the railroad industry as well as detailed, critical insight on leasing and finance from industry experts, analysts and investors, and rail shipper perspectives
Jason Hayes, ACC Communications Director will be speaking on the role of coal in the North American rail industry at this event.
Forbes magazine editorial predicts good things for railroads in 2008.
Who would have thought it? Railways are having a good year. They were supposed to be hunkered down, riding out the recession. Instead, the old iron horse is thriving.
McCloskey American Coal Imports 2015
From the McCloskey Coal website
From 2000 through 2006, coal imports into the US have tripled-to more than 36M st, driven by power generators who have valued the quality of the coals and the logistical and supply diversity that they provide over domestic rail-delivered coal.
"Could annual imports rise to as much as 100Mst?" was one of the questions we posed ourselves when we set out to put this report together, given the prices of competing fuels and coals and the increasingly unreliable and expensive US coal delivery system.
As 2007 closes and power generators struggle with high inventories and face extremely low domestic US price levels, the opposite question presents itself-could, indeed, imports have peaked?
Both of these viewpoints are incorrect-the dynamic for the imported coal trade will change, but the end result won't.
Again, as 2007 approaches closure, the US coal industry passes two major milestones-the ending of the Synfuel tax break, affecting over 100M st annually, and the imposition of tighter and much more expensive safety measures, particularly in deep mines. Both of these issues, arriving at a time of wretched steam coal price levels, promise to result in a major shake up in the Central Appalachian mining sector.
American Coal Imports 2015 utilizes a microeconomic regional approach to determine whether either of these two schools of thought have any validity. Transport, infrastructure, competing fuels and regional issues are examined in detail and this forecasts estimates coal demand and imports on a region by region basis for the years 2010 and 2015.
In what is being described by Merrill Lynch as a "bold move," industry news today is reporting that Canadian Pacific Railway will acquire Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad.
Canadian Pacific has announced to acquire Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad Corp. and its subsidiaries (DM&E) for US$1.48 billion, along with contingent payments of up to $1.05 billion, a price at 12.4x 2007e forward EBITDA and 14.4x trailing 2006 EBITDA, excluding contingency payments, multiples ahead of the 11.7x trailing EBITDA Fortress paid last year when it acquired RailAmerica. If we include the first contingent payment, which is paid when CP begins building into the PRB, the trailing 2006 EBITDA multiple would increase to 17.8x trailing 2006 EBITDA, perhaps indicating that CP won the company through a bidding war. While this appears to be expensive, the option CP gains to build a network into the Powder River Basin (PRB) could provide significant long-term strategic value for the company.
Other media reports indicate that the acquisition will help to cement DM&E plans to expand into the lucrative PRB coal market. That expansion would allow the newly combined railroad to haul as much as 100 million tons of PRB coal per year, as well as take part in growing agriculture and ethanol markets.
The acquisition would expand Canadian Pacific's network by 2,500 miles, or 4,000 kilometers, and provide access to U.S. markets for transporting coal, ethanol and agriculture products. Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, which had freight revenue of $258 million in 2006, is the largest regional rail line in the United States, Canadian Pacific said.
