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Natural Gas is not a solution, long or short term...

Every reliable source I've read says that the NG supplies in the US have been dwindling for over 30 years. Worse, among the world reserves for untapped NG, the US ranks among the lowest. Perhaps even worse, the cost of compressing (liquefying) and shipping NG from countries with the largest reserves, Russia for example, would make it as energy-expensive as importing petroleum. And, would do nothing to reduce US dependence on foreign energy sources.

Plus, while the energy-cost, of converting existing transportation equipment to NG, is something I have yet to fully research, you can bet it won't be cheap. And that's not even considering converting airlines (the weight of the tanks alone would reduce the passenger/cargo capacity incredibly making airline travel even more expensive)... The task quickly becomes enormous and quite complex.

Wouldn't it be better, and simpler, if we just unite to make our individual lives more energy efficient? And to actively attempt to get the government to provide incentives for individuals and businesses to focus on conservation and truly alternative sources of energy?

--del

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Permalink Reply by neil cox on March 13, 2009 at 8:20pm
You may be correct, but I don't think so Terrance. Most vehicles on CNG can carry enough CNG for several hundred miles. Biodiesel may be available in large quantities by 2012, with the help of lot's of taxpayers dollars, or it could turn out worse than ethanol from corn. I don't think any one plant has produced a million gallons of bio diesel yet. I'm not opposed to bio diesel, but it will take perhaps ten years to reach large scale, and we may discover problems with large scale bio-diesel. CNG can be implemented sooner for half as much taxpayers money. 2012 may be too late to get this done faster than seems prudent. T. Boone Pickens is giving us good advice in my opinion. Neil
Permalink Reply by Terrence Abrams on March 14, 2009 at 7:04pm
I don't think so Neil, hope you're right, but I don't think so. CNG has only gotten a small Honda to go 240 miles, with the AC off and maintaining no speed higher than 33-40 mpg when just attaining 240 miles per CNG charge. Where are you getting your data from? Conventional gasoline drinkers get about 400 miles per tank, and in a decent economy car, like a mid-sized Hyundai Sonata, are getting close to 600 miles per tank, AC on.

Other comparable models have gotten far less. When running up to just 55 mph, these same cars are only getting 170 miles maximum. This includes the CNG models with the extra energy concentrators of the H-Fuel cell technologies.

As the weight of the vehicle increases, the amount of CNG onboard requirements increase geometrically, making the vehicle specs unreasonable and not anythng anyone would want to drive.

Biodiesels are already working. I could take you out to a rural area close to Denver where the estate owners and farmers are already synthesizing their own biodiesels on their own property, getting great mileage in their own diesel vehicles, and have not filled up at a conventional fuel station now in over a year and a half.

And, as of this AM, about 10:45 AM CST, President Obama gave a speech about his visit with the President of Brazil. One of the new technologies they are both going to fund as a bi-national product industrial cooperative is....Ta-daaaa...!! BioDiesel. Obama went on about this for some time this AM.

I'm afraid Pickens has been run by like he was standing still, and still won't talk about it since he's not vested at all in it.
Permalink Reply by SJC on March 17, 2009 at 2:10pm
A lot of the FFV cars made in Brazil are made by Ford and GM. We should require that ALL cars in the U.S. be FFV. It costs less than $200 per car for the manufacturer to do this and then the fleet of FFVs would expand rapidly.

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