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AndrewJ -

Originally Posted by AndrewJ

True that.

...

With all this talk of making 18 wheelers more efficient it makes me appreciate what we (as a society) will do to keep the hold on our normative ways of doing things.

To me, it's only a matter of time before we re-invest in rail infrastructure. Rail is SO much more efficient than individual trucks, it just takes that initial investment to get our rail system up to above 3rd world standards...

Funny you should say that :

Warren Buffett's New Train Set - 09.11.2007
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007...n_buffetts.php

Green blogs give a lot of pixels to Vinod Khosla and his investments in solar and ethanol, but the man to watch in America is Warren Buffett. He famously sat out the last internet boom because he "didn't understand it" - he invests in businesses that he can see and touch and hangs in for the long term. Right now he is investing in railways. "He sees something in the rail industry that, over the next decade or longer, will make this an attractive investment," said an analyst. It might be that rail has a three to one fuel efficiency advantage over trucking and there is a shortage of truck drivers, or that railways are running leaner and more efficiently than ever before. It might just be a coal play, since most of it runs on rails. It certainly bodes well for the future of rails, the best hope for getting trucks off the road

Why Warren Buffett is buying railroads - March 20, 2008
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/07/pf/sivy_apr.moneymag/

Want to invest in a green industry that employs the latest technology, reduces U.S. oil consumption and is priced very attractively? Look no further than the railroads. Laggards for decades after the 19th-century boom ended, they're hot again.

"There was steady traffic growth until last year, and the trend looks good once the economy gets back up to speed," says Kenneth Kremar, an economist who follows the railroad industry for consulting firm Global Insight. Perhaps that's why railroad stocks have largely escaped the battering that other sectors have taken so far this year.

Of course, their business could still be hurt temporarily if the economy deteriorates further. But eventually, says Kremar, "we'll see a pickup in demand, especially in the kinds of commodities railroads carry."

Astute investors are climbing aboard. Warren Buffett has been loading up on shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe and was buying in January at prices only 13% below current levels. (News of his buying boosted the stock.) At last count, he owned more than 18% of the company.

CarloSW2