Carbon Emissions...Comparing Apples to Apples and Oranges to Oranges

Was starting to think today that I need to get going on reviewing the Act 2 'PEIS,' that's Scott's idea for a 'Pseudo-EIS.' I'll do another post later today about that.

Right now, though, Ken Stokes drew my attention to this:

Environment-Hawaii’s Pat Tummins was kind enough to include SusHI in her commentary on the Superferry, and went on to feature Jeff Mikulina and Brad Parsons regarding this boat’s “extravagant carbon footprint.”...

I tried to click over to Environment-Hawaii, but it requires a subscription, so I didn't get to read it. I can only surmise it must have been good because it got Ken Stokes all riled up again about comparing the carbon emissions of the Superferry to it's competitors based on cargo weight rather than just per passenger. I had formulated a logical response to that, but did not take the time to broadcast it until now in response to Ken. Here is that response:

1. Kauaibrad Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
   February 5th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

   Got an easy answer for ya’ Ken.

   When comparing carbon footprints we need to be comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges.

   We should agree that the carbon footprint for transporting passengers (per passenger) is at least twice that for the Superferry compared to an interisland jet.

   Where we disagreed is that you wanted to further compare the Superferry to jets for weight or cargo. It took me a while of thinking about it, but for comparing carbon emissions based on weight or cargo transported we should be comparing Superferry’s emissions to that of Young Brothers. Young Brothers transports a lot more cargo than Aloha Air Cargo, and it is my contention that that is what you should more representatively compare Superferry to for cargo or weight transport.

   If you do that calculation accurately, I am confident it will show that Superferry has a much greater carbon footprint than Young Brothers (per given weight of cargo). The reason is because Superferry is burning a lot more fuel with more engine power doing the same transit a lot faster (than Young Brothers), faster than is economically justifiable (now and even more so in the future).
   

   There you go, Ken.

   Aloha, Brad