Stop letting vehicles idle
I recently spent two weeks vacationing near Kona. I observed a practice that was quite shocking to me: the number of drivers that leave vehicles idling in shopping center parking lots. Some had no one in the vehicle. The craziest was people in the vehicle windows down and idling.
Just because your vehicle is idling does not mean it is not still polluting. Idling in traffic is required, idling while parked is an option. Twelve million gallons of fuel is wasted everyday by idling in the U.S. (that equals an extra 120,000 tons of carbon dioxide CO2).
Since the introduction of electronic ignition and fuel injection (in the early 1990s) the old “husband tales” about vehicle idling are no longer true.
Facts about idling (while parked, not in traffic) that many people do not know:
• More fuel is consumed idling for 10 seconds than it takes to start a vehicle
• Two minutes of idling wastes enough fuel to cover a mile of travel
• Modern engines only need 30 seconds of idling before being driven
• Vehicles today are designed for 50,000 starts (10 starts per day = 13.5 years).
• Starting a vehicle adds about $10 per year in maintenance cost, compare that cost to idling 10 minutes per day = 60 hours per year and $180 or more in fuel cost.
Examples below are common sense activities to save our environment, improve air quality and save money:
• Whenever possible avoid using drive-throughs. Park your vehicle, engine off, walk inside.
• Cell phone use: turn vehicle off while using phone.
• Long predictable delays like road construction and rail crossings turn off your engine.
For more information check out idle free websites, like iturnitoff.com.
The climate is changing faster than we are. So please turn your key and be idle free.
Stephen Kingsbury
Beaverton, Oregon
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The past, present and future of Major League Baseball
I am coming straight out and saying the great Fernando Tatis Jr. is my favorite Major League Baseball player hands down. He had a monster series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with five home runs, numerous stolen bases, a lot of runs batted in (RBIs) and an enormous number of runs scored.
His home run antics are great for the game of Major League Baseball for it makes the game of baseball on the highest level extremely exciting.
Fernando Tatis Jr. is the past, present and future of Major League Baseball. An extremely talented player like Fernando Tatis Jr. comes around only once in millennium. That’s why the San Diego Padres is my favorite Major League Baseball team hands down.
Dean Nagasako.
Honokaa
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No free lunch or flush
There is no free lunch, and there is no free flush. If Hawaii County wants to keep on funding the Naalehu sewer boondoggle, then council members should raise the property tax rate on grocery stores. After all, the more we eat the more we flush.
Jerry Warren
Naalehu
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West Hawaii Today
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