CNG News From Texas, UPS -- March 16, 2016

Huge news -- one has no idea how often I've wondered why we're not hearing more stories like this. A huge "thank you" to a reader for sending me this, from Houston bizjournal:

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. will build 12 compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations for a new fleet of trucks, some of which will be located in four cities across Texas.

In addition to the stations, UPS will also deploy 380 new Class 8 trucks — 18 wheelers or semis — as part of a $100 million investment in cleaner fuel.

UPS is working toward a goal of logging one billion miles driven by alternative-fuel vehicles by 2017. The shipping company's current alternative-fuel fleet comprises 6 percent of its total fleet.

In February, UPS expanded its agreement with California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp.  to use up to 500,000 gallon equivalents of renewable liquefied natural gas annually in Texas. UPS stations in Houston and Mesquite will dispense the RLNG to a fleet of about 140 UPS tractors.

If one reads the article, one can finally understand why the USPS never went to CNG and it never will.

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The Hypocrisy Page

or

The Perfect Bumper Sticker For The 2016 General Election

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Easy, Easy For GOP

Regarding President Obama's Supreme Court nomination, some data points and comments:

• it is now customary for the president's first nomination to be borked
• this nomination is President Obama's sacrificial lamb
• GOP will get wobbly; 75% chance Senate will consider the nomination
• however, if the Senate does not consider this nomination, the Senate will not consider anyone President Obama nominates
• if the Senate leadership does not invoke the "Biden Rule" on Supreme Court, I will be quite distraught
• my hunch: he will be confirmed in late November (2016), early December after some theatrical grandstanding (the GOP won't want a Hillary nomination; and the GOP won't trust a Trump nomination)

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A Note for the Granddaughters

I always get on my bike from the left side. Never, never, never do I get on from the right side. Except twice, that I recall. It's awkward, and I'm prone to losing my balance when getting on from the right side.

This morning, because my bike was left overnight on the patio, I was on the grass when I got on. For some inexplicable reason, I decided to get on from the right side. The bike was oriented to go downhill, and the lawn was disrupted by dozens of two-inch to four-inch tree roots that the kids trip over every day running through the backyard. What could possibly go wrong?

I finally "recovered" from the feeling of nausea about a half-mile down the road. LOL.

But I made it to Starbucks in, otherwise, great shape.