The United States Army is looking at hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, hoping that sometime in the near future they’ll play some important military roles, maybe even on the battlefield.
The military has been looking at alternative fuels like this because of the difficulty, expense and danger of securing oil and gasoline supplies.
Hydrogen fuel cells, in particular, seem promising because of their design flexibility, said Major General Roger Matthews, Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific.
Unlike an ordinary car’s engine and transmission, fuel cells and batteries can take various shapes and be arranged inside the vehicle in a number of different ways.
That allows for vehicles to be better designed for different roles, whether for carrying people, cargo or other duties, he said.
Gallery: Electric not the only ‘green car’ solution
For now, the U.S. is testing a fleet of 16 General Motors fuel cell vehicles in Hawaii. They run on compressed hydrogen gas. The hydrogen is combined in a fuel cell with oxygen from the air in a process that generates electricity. The only exhaust the vehicles produce is water vapor.
This new fleet includes one vehicle that can be used as a portable generator, supplying enough energy to keep the lights on in several homes. The same technology could be useful in an "tactical" vehicle, said Matthews, providing power to a command center, for instance.
"We think this might have greater application in combat vehicles," he said.
The car’s low environmental impact is a serious benefit, too, said Matthews. Particularly in Hawaii, the Army doesn’t want to be seen as a destructive force on the islands’ delicate ecology.
"We have to be good stewards of the environment," he said.
The 16 vehicles in the test fleet are distributed across various branches of the military, including the Army, Air Force and Navy. They are being used as "administrative" vehicles, performing light-duty work such as ferrying around personnel.
The military spends roughly $3.6 million a year to lease the fleet of from GM, said Major General Roger Matthews, Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific.
Their biggest advantage over electric cars is that it takes much less time — usually just a few minutes — to pump a tank full of hydrogen than it does to charge a large battery.
These vehicles have a range of about 200 miles on a full tank. The state of Hawaii, where the cars are being tested, has also partnered with GM to test hydrogen fuel cell cars.
Hydrogen fueled cars make sense in Hawaii because the Pacific islands produce hydrogen locally from various sources, unlike gasoline which must be imported. Plus, Hawaii has the highest gasoline prices in the nation.
Hawaii also makes an ideal test site because the islands’ small size make for relatively short and predictable drive routes, said Charles Freese, exec director of GM’s hydrogen fuel cell programs.
The environment also presents unique challenges with its high humidity, salty air and wide variety of different terrains.
For now, hydrogen fuel cell technology remains expensive. But Matthews says the only way to reduce the cost is to invest in more research projects like this.
Asian stock markets were mostly higher Thursday after the U.S. central bank pledged to keep interest rates low for another three years to nurture the country’s stubbornly slow economic recovery.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 1.1 percent to 20,322.51 on its first trading day since the Chinese New Year holiday. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.2 percent to 1,956.14. Benchmarks in Singapore and New Zealand also rose.
Japan’s Nikkei was 0.4 percent lower at 8,846.96, following strong gains a day earlier. Markets in Taiwan and mainland Chinese remained closed for the Chinese New Year. The Australian market was closed for a public holiday.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee said it was unlikely to raise interest rates before late 2014. It had previously said it expected to keep rates low into the middle of 2013.
The Fed cut rates to near zero in December 2008, during the financial crisis, and has held them there ever since. The announcement was a sign that the Fed expects the economy, which is improving, to need significant help for three more years.
Analysts said stock buyers rejoiced that the Fed was leaning toward promoting economic growth.
“With the FOMC sending out a strong signal that monetary policy is likely to remain accommodative for even longer than previously expected, risk assets are in a very good position,” said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne guaranteed personal loan approval.
Wall Street welcomed the news, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing up 0.6 percent at 12,756.96 _ the highest close since May 10. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.9 percent to 1,326.06. The Nasdaq composite index gained 1.1 percent to close at 2,818.31.
Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 39 cents to $99.79 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose by 45 cents to finish at $99.40 per barrel in New York on Wednesday. At one point it was as high as $100.40.
The prospect of low interest rates weighed on the dollar, since it reduces the returns that investors get from holding assets denominated in that currency. The euro rose to $1.3103 from $1.3084 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.75 yen from 77.81 yen.
South Korea has lifted an eight-year ban on imports of Canadian beef.
Seoul imposed the ban after mad cow disease was found in a Canadian cow in 2003. Canada has since been recognized as a “controlled risk” country for beef by the World Organization for Animal Health. Canada filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the South Korean ban in 2009.
South Korea’s Agriculture Ministry says the ban was lifted on Friday. But it says Seoul will only allow imports of Canadian beef from cattle younger than 30 months old. Younger cows are deemed less susceptible to mad cow disease.
The ministry also said the imports must exclude riskier parts such as the brain, skull and eyes.
South Korea was Canada’s fourth-largest beef export market before the ban.
TORONTO
Globalization and technology are intensifying the growing income gap between the rich and poor in Canada, economists say.
And government policies aren
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s main coalition ally urged him to step aside Tuesday as political uncertainty in the eurozone’s third-largest economy rocked financial markets for yet another day.
Berlusconi’s government is under intense pressure to enact quick reforms to shore up Italy’s defenses against Europe’s raging debt crisis. However, a weak coalition and doubts over Berlusconi’s ability to push through austerity and reforms have financial markets fearing some type of financial disaster in Italy.
“We asked him to step aside, take a step to the side,” Northern League leader Umberto Bossi told reporters as he arrived ahead of a key vote that could force Berlusconi’s resignation. Bossi is the volatile ally who brought down Berlusconi’s first conservative government in 1994 when he yanked his support.
With debts of around euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion), Italy is considered by many as being too big for Europe to bail out, like it has already done for Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
Italy’s center-left opposition said it would abstain in Tuesday’s voting, to make it clear just how fragile Berlusconi’s forces in Parliament are. If he is backed by less than 316 deputies _ or less than half of the 630-member chamber — it would be plain that Berlusconi can no longer count on a majority in the lower house of Parliament, even though the government mathematically could still win the vote to approve the 2010 state finances.
Bossi said the man Berlusconi has already hand-picked to be his eventual successor, former Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, should now lead the government.
But it would be up to the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, to decide whether to appoint a new leader or dissolve parliament and call early elections.
International financial officials and the markets, meanwhile, fretted over how long it was going to take for lawmakers to approve measures promised by Berlusconi to rein in Italy’s galloping public debt.
With that in mind, Italy’s borrowing rates spiked Tuesday to their highest level since the euro was established in 1999. Higher rates would make it more difficult for Italy to rollover its debts and will mean they consume more and more of its national income. Italy has over euro300 billion ($412 billion) to raise in 2012 alone.
By late-morning, the yield on Italy’s ten-year bonds was up 0.07 percentage point at 6.60 percent, down from an earlier high of 6.74 percent. A rate of over 7 percent is considered unsustainable and proved to be the trigger point that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal into accepting financial bailouts.
MADISON COUNTY
The threat that floodwaters will inundate Thailand’s capital could ease by the beginning of next month as record-high levels in the river carrying torrents of water downstream from the country’s north begin to decline, authorities said Sunday.
The Flood Relief Operations Command made the comments just a day after reports that Bangkok’s main Chao Phraya river was overflowing its banks deepened concerns that the city would be inundated. The report said the river was at its highest levels in seven years.
The command’s chief, Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, said in a televised press conference Sunday that people should not be too concerned about the river’s spillover because it could be drained off. He also said water in Klong Prapa, a major canal that had been overflowing, was receding, and that plans to drain water to the east and west were working well.
Floodwaters that have spilled onto highways north of the capital, including near Bangkok’s second airport in the Don Muang district, came from rising groundwater that will quickly recede, he said.
Off the highways, however, the situation remained dire. Associated Press reporters found people scrambling for safety outside a hospital in northern Rangsit district, where the water was waist-deep.
The flood relief agency said “people should adjust their lifestyles in accordance with the situation” and check all information because rumors have been quick to circulate. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Saturday that the waters may take up to six weeks to recede to manageable proportions.
The death toll from the flooding, which began in August in northern Thailand before moving south, has reached 356, while the economic costs are estimated to be as high as $6 billion and still counting.
Residents of Bangkok and its suburbs have settled into a daily routine of waiting and worrying. Advice from the authorities has generally been vague or sometimes overly detailed, giving little idea of the urgency of evacuation, so many people have decided to hunker down in their homes and hope for the best.
Many are hoarding supplies for the aquatic siege, and supermarket shelves have been emptying faster than they can be restocked. Bottled water, batteries and canned food were among the first items to go.
At a supermarket in central Bangkok’s business district _ which is not under immediate threat _ sandbags were lined up at both entrances Sunday, forcing shoppers to step over to go inside. Many of the shelves were bare, with the handful of shoppers inside grabbing the few snacks that were left small personal loans. Cat food and toilet paper were gone.
While larger stores in Bangkok have kept their prices fixed, in the flooded zones north of the city, smaller merchants were raising theirs. A Rangsit resident, Taweetit Hongsang, complained that the price of a papaya, 10 baht (33 cents) a week ago, had shot up to 30 baht ($1)
The front lines in the battle against the flood have been shifting every day, but always drawing closer to the capital. The latest red zone is the Don Muang area in northern Bangkok, where the city’s second and older airport _ now serving as an anti-flood headquarters and evacuation center _ is located.
Other spots of concern in Bangkok are in the west, where several thousand people living along the Chao Phraya river have been advised to move, as high tides expected late Sunday could cause the river to overflow its banks in some areas, and in the east, where barriers were being erected to protect an industrial estate.
At least five major industrial estates north of Bangkok have been forced to suspend operations, contributing to an estimated 700,000 people put out of work by the flooding. Among those affected are Japanese carmakers Toyota and Honda, which have halted major assembly operations. The electronics industry has also suffered, including computer hard drive maker Western Digital, which has two major production facilities in the flooded zone.
Some flooding on Bangkok’s outskirts was expected after Yingluck ordered floodgates opened Thursday in a risky move to drain the dangerous runoff through urban canals and into the sea. Nobody knows with any certainty to what extent the city will flood.
In a weekly radio address Saturday, Yingluck said that “during the next four to six weeks, the water will recede.”
In the meantime, the government will step up aid to those whose lives have been disrupted, including 113,000 people living in temporary shelters after being forced to abandon submerged homes, she said.
The flooding is the worst to hit Thailand since 1942, and the crisis is proving a major test for Yingluck’s nascent government, which took power in July after heated elections and has come under fire for not acting quickly or decisively enough to prevent major towns north of the capital from being ravaged by floodwaters.
JEFFERSON CITY
Liz Claiborne Inc., which hasn’t had an annual profit since 2006, is planning to sell several brands, including its namesake business, and will change its name.
The company said Wednesday that it will focus on its Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and kate spade brands, and says the name change will reflect that. It hasn’t picked a new name yet.
It expects to generate about $328 million from its sales of the Liz Claiborne and other brands.
Its stock jumped $1.65, or 32.4 percent, to $6 paydayloans.75 in premarket trading.
The company is selling its Liz Claiborne brands and Monet jewelry brand to department store operator J.C. Penney Co. for about $288 million. It is also selling the Kensie brand to Bluestar Alliance and has closed on the sale of its Dana Buchman brand to Kohl’s Corp for about $40 million.
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