Letter: Massive vehicles — already electrified
The reporting by Scott Miller of a recent Eagle County Board of Commissioners meeting on 2050 climate goals included questions asked at that meeting about the electrification of heavy vehicles. In that context, Miller noted the following comment from Commissioner Tom Boyd, who while referring to the energy density of fossil fuels, said: “I do think there are solutions, but I haven’t seen any yet.”
In fact, there are plenty of examples of the electrification of heavy vehicles and equipment. This includes many pieces of kit that are bigger, in fact massively bigger, than anything Eagle County is ever likely to have in its fleet.
Perhaps the best examples, which demonstrate that the “energy density” of fossil fuel-powered vehicles can be replaced with electric alternatives at large scale, come from the mining industry.
A specific example: Caterpillar is testing large battery electric dump trucks. Its all-electric model 793 is a beast weighing 240 tons fully loaded which can travel at 37 mph. Take a look. Maybe this meets the definition of “credible science?”
Noteworthy too, is that the massive Australian-based mining giant Fortescue has a goal of Net Zero by … 2030. (Doing so without offsets which, incidentally, it refers to as a “scam.”)
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To correct a point that Commissioner Matt Scherr also made in this meeting when he said these challenges will be figured out in the coming years, actually, this stuff is being figured out … right now.
Adam Quinton
Board member at Holy Cross Energy, Colorado Rural Electric Association and Walking Mountains Science Center
