natural gas fuel truckstop / filling station

I am very interested in setting up a natural gas fuel truckstop / filling station
and electricity generating facility
on my property at the intersection of I 70 and I 77 in Ohio.
We have natural gas on site.
The freeways go all 4 directions across the United States.
I would like to do this in association with the Pickens plan.
Who do I talk to, where can I start?
Thanks,
Shon D. Lenzo
President,
Freeway Development Corporation

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by William Engwer on September 12, 2009 at 9:41am: You might try to contact Jamie Farnham, the business development manager for Clean Energy. His e-mail is jfarnham@cleanenergyfuels.com. Tell him you were referred by William Engwer, who met him at an open house for one of their fueling stations in south Atlanta last month.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shon D. Lenzo on September 16, 2009 at 9:35am: I did send him an email!!
Hope to hear back.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Paul on September 14, 2009 at 7:35am: History records that those ventures that are successful are so because they are at the right place at the right time. The Deuce man has correctly observed the likely outcome of trying to entice outsiders with just the offering of a patch of land. As he said, if you're confident and aware of the risk - go for it.

The Light is Green!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by DubleDeuce on September 15, 2009 at 5:59pm: <<The Deuce man has correctly observed... >>

But apparently not to the popularity of all concerned. You have to wonder...without the benefit of obscenities, vulgarities, and personal attacks, what was it that was said (in my now deleted post) that the statue quo could not bear to let stand for all the world to see. To the low level bureaucrat that saw the necessity to remove this post, I truly pity your person. You MAY even be a natural born American. But you will NEVER be a true American. A true American would stand up and fight. Not with dirt, but with ideas. Ideas that would vanquish the problem from the air. But as a coward, it is FAR easier to just erase the offending verbiage as if it never happened. But it DID happen. And THAT, no censor can EVER erase.

If this is the quality and methodology of the coming debate, my side is SURE to win-presuming you have the courage to show up.

The Deuceman; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Paul on September 16, 2009 at 6:26am: Hey DD,

It's the avatar ;^) no matter how many times you explain it, you are still battling the entendre of the image.

Have a better one!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shon D. Lenzo on September 16, 2009 at 9:35am: Maybe so, But Now is the time,
according to Turner and Pickens Wall Street Journal article
and the land is in the right place for an alternate fuel truckstop.
It is at the worlds largest freeway intersection,
I 70 and I 77 in Cambridge, Ohio; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shon D. Lenzo on September 15, 2009 at 8:47pm: I appreciate all helpful information and constructive advice.
thanks
Shon; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shon D. Lenzo on September 16, 2009 at 9:29am: Deuceman-
I appreciate your healthy scepticism, and you might even be right....
but you did kind of say no one here would offer any advice that was worth hearing,
that nothing would happen, people on the list are essentially wingnuts,
and that Pickens idea of natural gas truckstops was basicly ignorant and deceptive.
Maybe that is what set off the administrator; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by DubleDeuce on September 17, 2009 at 10:02pm: It WASN'T the WORDS that set them off, it was the truth. Gets them everytime...right in the solarplexes. At least my sentiments did get out to one who was lookling for the "straight poop and skinny".

And I only WISH it was my avatar. All I would have to do is type in a single word and press the send button. The avatar would (according to Paul) drive 'em nuts. Unfortunately it just ain't so.

The Deuceman; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shon D. Lenzo on September 18, 2009 at 8:04am: I hope it is all not 'straight skinny poop' here,
and that things will really happen.
So many good intentions, plans and dreams are listed by the well meaning
people on the list who want to help the planet and make a living too.
Beautiful Dreamers, hoping to make it all a reality for the good of mankind

Thanks,
Shon; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by DubleDeuce on September 19, 2009 at 4:39pm: Great sentiments Shon but the inoperative words here are " Beautiful Dreamers". Dreams are nice. They are like road maps. And big dreams are like Super Road Maps, taking us to places not on the beaten path. Big dreams permit us to navigate the terrain where none have tread before.

But dreams can only take you so far. Remember, they are but a road map. They are NOT a substitute for action. Actions occure when dreams and frustration find themselves riding on the same train. They feed off of each other. The problem today (the delienated frustration) is mostly due to the inability of the masses to BELIEVE that they are in control of their destiny. They work hard, do the right thing, and just when they think they are getting somewhere, along comes a crude oil price squeeze to drive up the cost of going about our personal business. Than, a descision is made to reallocate income short term to pay for gas at the expense of the mortgage (we'll get it caught up later-right now I got to get to work).

On the fringes of this manufactured crises are the dope smoking, sweat band wearing, free love advocating, Mother Earth Cataloge reading, back to the basics, hippies; gone main stream media hawkers. Because of the various media connections and outlets availble to thier causes, a lot of what should be relagated to science fiction (to become reality in maybe 50 years) is now being considered as mainstream, state of the art technology. Not at all true.

The government wants to throw money at every scatter brained idea that comes along with the sales pitch that "who knows what next ground breaking idea awaits us in the "peoples R&D" kitchen. See Pickens famous hero Dick Tracy and his Sears and Roebuck inspired Trash to Plasma to Constituent Components video.

Well, WE KNOW already from where the next great idea will come from and it AIN'T from the People's R&D Kitchen. WWII was fought by brave young men and women, millions and millions of them, on the home front and the battle field. But the war was won conclusively by the deployment of overwhelming force, the atomic bomb. Don't look now, but this apparatus was NOT assembled from a P-38 and bailing wire by an early day Mc Giver with time on his hands while sneaking into the town of Hiroshima. It was the combined brain child of a Theoretical Physicists, a determined leadership, and hundreds, if not thousands of workers in all walks of life. And it was done with great focus on the goal.

We don’t have that type of problem today. We are not challenged by a great military power. Our shores are not being assaulted by an enemy. Our lifestyle is in some turmoil but we as citizens see it as the result of a giant interaction of stupidity, greed, and on the part of the government, sloth. All these things can be corrected.

The primary point of the formation of this forum was to give T. Boone Pickens some political cover when he went to Washington to lobby the powers that be. By being seen with the Who’s Who in the Zoo, he hoped to be able to play off of the various personalities and gain some street cred with the general population. (who, if the truth be known, didn't care much for the pre '80s Pickens persona)

Well, this forum, and its political and financial fallout demonstrates that you can lead thirsty people to water, and even when there is no water to drink, you can make them THINK that they are in fact drinking, or will be so, soon.

Natural gas is NOT a new phenomenon. Been around as a fuel forever. Using it as a waste byproduct in the 70s and 80s to run diesel engines was the favorite trick pony of the oil patch crowd. I designed, built, and shipped many hundreds of such early designed kits (we called then intake diffusers) for diesel engines for use in the oil patch. It beat the alternative of "flashing" it off as a waste.

Technology and need (remember the Dream and the frustration on the same train) eventually conspired to give us CNG powered buses to help clean up the city air from diesel engine soot. It was THIS demonstration project that gave CNG its street cred in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, not some government pushed program. It was PURELY a private affair. CNG as a fuel for high mileage, intra-city route delivery vehicles has been in serious contention as adjunct to high fuel cost and supply interruption far back as 1980.

So, what have we learned from all of this hype. Yes, ethanol WILL burn in an ICE engine. Yes, so will bio-diesel, algae, and hydrogen, and natural gas. But the problem is NOT the ability to DEMONSTRATE this phenomenon, (dreaming) but rather, to implement it to work. NONE of the above solution fuels is currently practicable. The ONLY reason for the CNG bus in Atlanta was the Olympics and the threat of fines for gross visible pollution. Once you subtract the cost of conversion, and lower cost of the fuel and add back into the mix the cost of non compliance, the issue became (at least here in Atlanta) one of break even. Add into the mix the positive publicity and the actual cleaner air, and you had a reason for conversion.

The average consumer does NOT have such a rational for conversion. The up front cost to convert is NOT part and parcel of his annual budget consideration. And even IF you factor in the (I'm recycling) grin that one may get by converting, the up front, out of pocket expense is just too overwhelming.

So, you CNG filling station, even with the ground to put it on, even with the "Cross Roads of America" moniker, goes NO WHERE without the average consumer ready to pitch in and be the consumer portion of your business plan. (it MIGHT work as an adjunct to a much larger and inclusive diesel truck stop) With current bickering and the financial situation, I don't see that happening.

If you are interested in a plan that utilizes what you are trying to do, only MORE expansive, drop me a private line at dubledeuce@earthlink.net and I'll tell you of a REAL dream with REAL frustration, in search of a train. You MIGHT be happy you did.

The Deuceman; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shon D. Lenzo on October 9, 2009 at 6:11am: Deuceman-
You really know your stuff.
The icon does not do you justice......
You have really been in the trenches of the alt. fuel battle.
I can understand your attitude after hearing your story in the email you sent me.
You have actually worked to implement this alt. fuel tech,
and not just a little bit.
Doesn't it seem like all bringers of new tech, ideas, or philosophies
would be -'saviors of mankind'--are often 'crucified' by their good intentions?; ▶ Reply to This