Natural Gas-Powered Cars Solve Nothing
I applaud T. Boone Pickens for embracing the future of wind power; however, I don't agree with his suggestion to convert cars to run on natural gas. It's replacing one non-renewable fossil fuel with yet another non-renewable fossil fuel. It's illogical.
We've already been reading in the news about rising natural gas prices (we hear about it especially every winter). Natural gas may be cheaper now compared to gasoline but that would change drastically once the transportation infrastructure is converted to natural gas.
Natural gas prices will skyrocket, people will have difficulty affording to heat their homes and we'll burn through yet another non-renewable energy source in less than 100 years. Not only that, we'll be forced to import more fuel from the very same countries we don't want to rely on (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, etc.), which puts us right back where we are now.
The solution isn't easy, I grant you that, but replacing one fossil fuel with yet another solves nothing. Find a way to power vehicles without using fossil fuels, and you'd be on to something.
We've already been reading in the news about rising natural gas prices (we hear about it especially every winter). Natural gas may be cheaper now compared to gasoline but that would change drastically once the transportation infrastructure is converted to natural gas.
Natural gas prices will skyrocket, people will have difficulty affording to heat their homes and we'll burn through yet another non-renewable energy source in less than 100 years. Not only that, we'll be forced to import more fuel from the very same countries we don't want to rely on (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, etc.), which puts us right back where we are now.
The solution isn't easy, I grant you that, but replacing one fossil fuel with yet another solves nothing. Find a way to power vehicles without using fossil fuels, and you'd be on to something.
Tags: cars, fossil, fossil fuel, fuels, gas, natural, natural gas, vehicles
Views: 30
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bob Chase on -
Seems to me the plan needs definition for near term solutions and long term solutions. Conversion to a "locally available" fuel as a near term solution will help during the time needed to develop the long term solutions. I agree that fossil fuel is not the long term answer. However, the first question is; How do we reduce dependence on foreign energy?". Anything we can produce here should be promoted, with an eye towards the long term goal of eliminating the fossil fuels. As long as we argue to exclude what is readily available, we fail to move forward until the perfect solution is agreed. I say become independent and apply the savings to the long term.
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Permalink Reply by Jerry McCarter on -
I don't think it could be put any better than the way Mr. Bob Chase put it. First and formost, reduce the dependence on foreign oil and reduce the trade defecit. Those are the number one priorities.
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Permalink Reply by nile clifton on -
Not true. We have more proven natural gas reserves in this country than any other country. Natural gas to heat homes will only one source to heat homes. It is more practical to use electricity driven from nuclear, water-generated, clean-coal generated , solar-generated power plants. By the way the U.S. have more coal than any country if we can perfect clean coal conversion
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Permalink Reply by SJC on -
We can use solar thermal to heat and cool our homes and buildings and save enough natural gas to power millions of cars. Solel in Israel offers solar thermal heating and cooling as well as the concentrated solar thermal collectors generating electricity in the Mojave Desert at Kramer Junction.
http://solel.com/
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Permalink Reply by mtSunk on -
Wrong. We do NOT have more proven natural gas reserves in the United States than in other other country. And North America isn't even close to the total numbers on other continents.
See the facts for yourself.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/reserves.html
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Permalink Reply by Matt Desmarais on -
We also had a ton of oil in this country at one point as well. What happened to all that? It was used up and we became dependent on foreign oil. Think ahead 50 years. When we run out of natural gas, then what? Probably electric like we should have done in the first place. And clean coal is a fallacy, in case you didn't know. Clean coal, and natural gas both emit a significant amount of CO2. We need a lot of renewables, soon.
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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Koch on -
There is a LOT of natural gas in the US! In the meantime we will have the time to develop better technologies.
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Permalink Reply by SJC on
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Russia and Iran are number one and two in NG reserves. They have more than 10 times our reserves, which begins to sound like the oil picture all over again. The difference is you can transport oil easily, LNG is very expensive and more difficult to transport long distances.
I would say use solar thermal heating and cooling on buildings and homes. Each home converted can power one car. Then gasify biomass to methane and put it in the existing pipes. Convert buses, taxis, fire trucks, police cars, delivery vans and anything you can to NG. Natural gas is cleaner and gasified biomass to methane is CO2 neutral. Converting 10% of our personal transportation to NG would only increase NG usage 2%.
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Permalink Reply by John Arthur on -
Natural Gas is cleaner burning and it would provide leverage to get the US out of the Middle East. In the future I believe all vehicles will be hydrogen cell powered. Until then, Natural Gas is the way to go.
http://members.cox.net/upxnnb
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Permalink Reply by Richard P. Fay on -
I think that Australia uses natural gas to power their cars and we could use that as a model for us in the interim. I think many of us know that what you're saying is true, however, we have an abundance
of natural gas here in the US, so why not use it until we can develop a method of powering our vehicles and get us away from the middle east oil barrons. It's cleaner and hopefully as efficent as
gasoline. The only negatives I see is availability to the general public and how much is our greedy government going to tax it. If we can couple nuclear power and substitute heat pumps where home fuel oil and natural gas is used may be alterative to use NG and maybe use some method of price
stablization to keep the price from going skyhigh.
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Permalink Reply by Quinn719 on -
If we are discussing the possibility of replacing the entirely fleet of U.S. cars, or if not the entire fleet a sizeable portion of it, then why not jump to encourging the purchase of fully electric cars. The expanded energy pie created by the additional wind generation would still go toward replacing oil, and preventing the transfer of wealth to foreign nations, but it would not requiring building distribution facilities for natural gas or shutting down natural gas power plants.
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