X-Tra Rant

Thanks to Shakespeare’s Sister I now have a total man-crush on Richard Branson. In a totally heterosexual kind of way, of course. heh

Instead of having Hummer-like vehicles simply tug jetliners away from the gate, Branson wants to tug them all the way to a holding area at the end of the runway.

It’s an initiative that’s about to get under way at JFK Airport in New York and at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports. If Daley can find a way to duplicate those efforts in Chicago, 80 percent of the total emissions of carbon monoxide would be eliminated, leaving the air around Chicago a whole lot cleaner, Branson said.
…
Branson says the tugs will save two to three tons of fuel per flight. If the tugs are available at both ends, it also saves an additional ton of fuel in the air, because the plane doesn’t need to carry the extra tonnage to taxi about the airports. Implementing Branson’s suggestion could thusly save as much as seven tons of fuel per flight. There’s a reason this guy’s a billionaire.

Wow. 7 tons per flight? Holy shit. That’s gotta be a huge amount of money that can be saved, not to mention the environmental benefits.

It’s one of those ideas that, when you read it, you go “damn! why wasn’t this thought of YEARS ago?!” I guess that’s why Richard Branson is a gajillionaire and operating a space tourism business and I…. am not.

But if that wasn’t enough, check out this choice bit from the YouTube video posted at Shakes’ post:

Check out the airline mogul talking about how airlines providing flights on routes for which trains are more efficient and more environmentally responsible should be taxed out of existence. I believe that’s called putting one’s money where one’s mouth is.

Indeed. So you can see where my Totally Hetero Man Crush comes from. Wish we had more gajillionaires like him.

There’s money to be made in being environmentally friendly. There’s LOTS of money to be made. Hopefully more and more corporations will realize it and get away from this attitude of “any government regulation is EVILLLLL” that so many have had for so long.