Dear Mr. Dumaine:

I may be the millionth person to point this out—and that would be a very good thing were it true—but some of your recent writing is, to put it politely, way off the mark.

In your article in Fortune Small Business of November 28, 2007, which was titled, “Putting the zoom into electric cars,” you made the following assertion:

“Switching from internal-combustion engines to electric-powered vehicles will seriously mitigate the effects of global warming.”

Apparently, you haven’t given much thought to the origins of electric power. Surely you must realize that over three quarters of the electric power in the US is generated by burning fossil fuels. So switching to electric power does not “seriously mitigate the effects of global warming” unless the power comes from other means. Some of these means, such as nuclear generation, are far too dangerous over the long term to warrant further consideration. There is, of course, wind power—and solar, too. But these are currently expensive and not at all widespread. Hydroelectric power is also possible, but I suspect that America lacks the political will to overcome the objections to more big dams.

That said, there are still good reasons to consider electric-powered vehicles as a means to lower greenhouse-gas emission. They consist mostly in economies of scale—a dollar spent in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions goes a lot further at an electric-power plant than it does in an individual automobile—and in the potential to sequester carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants, a technology that struggles today to achieve pilot scale.

Perhaps the best arguments are political and economic in nature. After all, most electric-power plants burn coal, which is available in abundance in the US. Had we a coal-based rather than petroleum-based transportation economy, there would have been virtually no political support for ginning up reasons to excuse the illegal invasion of oil-rich Iraq—and great amounts of American blood and treasure would have been spared for more useful purposes. And it is no secret that Saudi petro-dollar-funded Wahhabi madrassas worldwide have created hundreds of thousands of America-hating, extremist Muslims. No oil, no Saudi-fueled, global hate machine.

So, in the end, you are close to being right, but for the wrong reasons: getting Americans to use coal-produced electricity instead of oil as their transportation energy source would be a very good thing, but it won’t have much to do with reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, at least not in the short term.

Sharpen your pencil and think clear thoughts, and the world will delight in the wisdom of your writing. Regrettably, this article produces more heat than delight.

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http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204800563&pgno=3&queryText=

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/21/magazines/fortune/kirkpatrick_fastforward_riverbed.fortune/index.htm

Re: canoe
I thought the production of these has been outsourced to some third world country to bring the price down. There’s a company that makes a plastic version (entry level)

Yeah, vOfficeware really is an amazing tool for those looking to start up small businesses. I just heard about it recently and I didn’t realize just how easy it would be to use.

Pavan, Interesting site (vofficeware.com). I like their angle with helping small businesses.

Brian - I went through your site, and it looks great! I actually have come across another set of tools which is geared towards small business start-up which is at a fraction of the price: http://www.vOfficeware.com

Not directed towards contractors specifically, however can also have a great impact on small businesses.

The next little thing is the SMALL BUSINESS making a dramatic impact to our economy. For example, there are millions of small, mobile contractors in the home repair, remodeling and construction industry who run their business mostly by pen, paper (napkin, etc.) and cellphone. Now just imagine them replacing that all with Software-as-a-Service technology on a Tablet PC. We can, Brian & the team at MyOnlineToolbox.com

CANT WAIT UNTIL CUSTOMER CAN FLY ONE OF THOSE… I WANT ONE… CAN I DO A TEST FLIGHT ?

Do you know that there is a fine of $100.00 to file paper Form 355S Massachusetts Corporate Excise tax? This is tax on tax!

The Toyota Prius is hardly the champ of little wind resistance. The Honda Insight beats it by some 50% but, sad to say, has been dropped from the Honda line this year.

Drop by and drive ours. You’d be amazed.

Hello;

I enjoyed reading the article on electric cars in the last issue of FSB, and there was one thing I found disturbing. The article refers to ‘Global Warming’ as if it were a proven fact. While Al Gore seems to have regained center stage with his ironically errant “An Inconvenient Truth”, and global warming activists have brought this topic to a religious level, where all disbelievers are convicted of heresy without a trial; there remains one, still inconvenient truth. Global Warming is a theory, and as such, has not been scientifically proven. A fact, according to science, is a theory that has been tested and proven under the same circumstances at least two times and produced identical results which may again be reproduced at any time. Only when something has passed this test is it considered a fact. To consider Global Warming any more than a theory is to lend undue legitimacy to what is now a religion, and this is an abortion of the meaning of journalism (reporting the facts). It also, sadly, lends a slant to the article which I have not noticed in the magazine until this article.

This being said, I did enjoy the article, and the cars are impressive. Anything that gets better gas mileage and reduces emissions is a good thing, I will not disagree with that. Let’s just stick to the facts, and not get excited about the religion.

Thank you.

Isaac Wilson
President
Bullseye Electric, Inc

re: Next Small Thing

For some years now, a smaller version of the traditional Hawaiian outrigger canoe for one person has been attempting to gain a following but has been hampered by production bottlenecks to supply demand on Hawaiian islands plus a steady following on west and east coasts.
Online forum exists– ocpaddler.com where much of the exchange of ideas takes place.
Also “Pacific Paddler” magazine has web site — pacificpaddler.com — to cover all forms of related competition and personal interest stories that relate to one aspect of the Hawaiian culture that survives the years but is sometimes not yet fully accessable to all visitors that are more likely to associate and participate in surfing as their Hawaiian experience even though paddling is usually available as a group activity in many larger mainland cities.

(I am only frustrated participant who is one having difficulty procuring a canoe!)