Bikes for USC but not for downtown

USC’s Department of Vehicle Management and Parking Services and the iBike Company are putting together a bike rental program for students at USC. Starting with Amsterdam and its world–famous bicycle accommodations, many cities around the world have such a system. Paris in the last year or two has developed a bike rental system. Smaller cities the size of Columbia can very easily put together such a service. Columbia City Council has never considered such a thing. They’re in the parking garage business and curbside parking meter business in a big way, and the last thing Columbia City Council wants is an efficient and effective downtown transit system, including bicycles, all to the detriment of parking fees and fines imposed on downtown street traffic. The city is too dependent on downtown parking fees and fines, disregarding entirely what makes for a retail–and–visitor–friendly downtown.

Offshore oil exploration may have to defer to the red snapper

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s restriction on red snapper fishing could also restrict offshore oil and natural gas exploration. The council approved a plan last month to protect more than 23,000 square miles of deep–sea coral from North Carolina to Florida. The protection applies to bottom trawling fishing gear, but by restricting the footprint of bottom trawlers, the council could make it more difficult for oil and gas exploration off the coast. The council is planning a series of public hearings in November to present the proposed restrictions. Maps of several alternative plans are available online (http://www.safmc.net/Portals/6/Newsletters/Sum mer09update.pdf ).

Boeing

The North Charleston planning department received a permit application from Boeing last month to clear about 82 acres next to its existing parts plant, starting November 2, and the application implied a construction permit could be sought at a later date. Boeing reportedly might need an assembly line building of more than 700,000 square feet, employing about 900 workers. The final decision from Boeing on where it will build its second 787 Dreamliner assembly plant is expected by the end of the year. The other plant is operational in Everett, Wash., and Boeing’s second 787 Dreamliner assembly plant could still locate there.

Electric buses

Colorado–based Proterra LLC is seriously looking at the Greenville/Spartanburg area for its new factory for hybrid–electric and all–electric buses. In another three years, the factory could employ 500 workers, and in six years all told, 1,000 people could be employed at the plant. The Greenville Transit Authority (GTA) has applied for $100 million in federal funds, of which $42 million would go to the purchase of 24 electric buses and their charging stations, and the rest would help the GTA to turn its bus service into a regional system spanning from Clemson to the Greenville/Spartanburg Regional Airport and from Travelers Rest to Fountain Inn. Columbia has no transit plans for anything similar.

Electric cars

CT&T Co. Ltd. of Seoul, Korea, an electric car manufacturer, is investigating the feasibility of locating its North American headquarters and a research and development center in the Upstate close to Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive research (ICAR). The Upstate could also score one of CT&T’s 10 electric car assembly and sales sites in its U.S. operation. The assembly plant would employ maybe 200 workers. CT&T is also considering South Carolina’s Lowcountry for its sites.

Columbia Star Business Section called this one

At the end of 2007, public power provider Santee Cooper said the only feasible way to supply the amount of electricity needed along the S.C. coast by 2012 was to build the pulverized coal–burning power plant, or “expect the lights to go out.” On January 4, 2008, the Columbia Star Business Section suggested: “What Santee Cooper, or its detractors, are not talking about is wholesale wheeling, the permitted transmission of electric power across power lines from one utility through another to another. The 1991 Energy Policy Act allows for such commerce at a fixed federal rate... The infrastructure and the laws are in place to allow Santee Cooper to import the power it needs for its customers.” As it turned out, Santee Cooper dropped its plans for the pulverized coal–burning plant in southern Florence County and cut a deal with Duke to buy power wholesale and distribute it to Santee Cooper’s customers, just as these pages said it should.