Chicago Department Of Streets & Sanitation To Cut Back On Plowing Snow On Side Streets

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Mayor Richard M. Daley said Tuesday that city crews will cut back on plowing side streets this winter in an effort to save money. The mayor said the city will only plow side streets during weekday union business hours this winter, rather than during overtime hours

But as CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports if there's one city service Chicagoans demand, it's outstanding snow removal.
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City Department of Streets & Sanitation Commissioner Michael Picardi, according to the release from Streets & San, pointed out that Monday's moderate snow, which brought 2 1/2 inches to the North Side and 1 1/2 inches to the South Side, still cost $490,000 to clear because of high costs for equipment ($143,000), salt ($295,000) and workers ($51,000).

"Our full route system covers 9,456 lane miles and during a full snow program is patrolled by 274 snow-fighting trucks which use gasoline, spread salt and are operated by salaried drivers, so costs will naturally mount whenever we go out," Picardi said. "Our challenge is to find as many ways to provide this important service while still working to reduce costs."
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It was voters' anger over the city's inept reaction to the snowstorm of 1979 that swept Michael Bilandic out and Jayne Byrne into the mayor's office.

Ever since, snow removal has been a budgetary sacred cow with mayors spending whatever it takes. And voters' attitudes haven't changed.

Climate Progress »  Whose bailout plan is best: Ford drops hydrogen while GM remains confused about ethanol

Uhh, no.  Corn ethanol remains the worst energy policy idea of the past two decades with very limited potential to replace significantly more imported oil (see “The Fuel on the Hill — The Corn Supremacy” and “About those two studies dissing biofuels“). Meanwhile, scalable, affordable cellulosic ethanol is not right around the corner (see “Are biofuels a core climate solution?“).

Joe Romm says biofuel targets should be halved as climate change measure, ignites debate among experts : Biofuels Digest

Romm wrote in Gristmill that “Virtually all crop-based biofuels are worthless from a climate perspective and probably a bad idea from most other perspectives. Second, there is not a single commercial cellulosic ethanol plant in United States yet. Third, I’m not sure there is an agreement in the scientific community about how to do lifecycle analysis needed to determine the net carbon benefit from cellulosic fuels. Fourth, in a post-2050 world with three billion more people who are losing water from melting glaciers and desertification, arable land and water will be very dear commodities. That means the only biofuels that would make sense to fight global warming would be ones that do not require arable land or much fresh water.”