We want to Invest in the Pickens Plan

Comment

Comment by William Engwer on April 9, 2009 at 5:38pm

Okay, is it just me being old fashioned, or is marketing on this sight just wrong? I think the use of the Pickens Plan website to market goods and services is an absolute abuse of this venue. Anybody else?

Comment by William Engwer on April 9, 2009 at 7:15am

Bonnie,
Yes, the Fuelmaker has often been criticized as being "overpriced", but that's usually the way of things when new technology enters a free market. Market demand allowing volume production economies to be implemented typically drive the price down. That never happened with the Phill device, obviously, but here I need to make two very important points.
1) Referencing the general public's ability to use this thing, all you do is insert an almost idiot-proof connector to a port on the vehicle and turn the unit on. How difficult is that? Fueling a vehicle with liquid gasoline is FAR FAR more dangerous, if that's what one wishes to dwell on. Just driving a car on the streets is more potentially life-threatening than using these devices. The refueling operation is less technically demanding than hooking up the old propane tank to the gas grille.T. Boone has one himself.
2) This technology is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. All the relevant patents are available to the public, and a competing, CHEAP device that doesn't violate Fuelmaker's patents should be relatively easy to develop and manufacture. In my work, I have repeatedly navigated around existing utility patents, and though I've not read through those pertaining to Fuelmaker, I'm 99% certain it's do-able. The current units are small, not much larger than a large desktop printer, and much of the development necessary to bring the costs WAY down has already been done. Home refueling with CNG makes more sense than anything else, if the goal is to make a large dent in America's foreign oil consumption in the near future. The infrastructure is in place and the technologies are proven and available NOW.

I am also a proponent of biofuels, but NOT from corn. Waste cellulose from a variety of agricultural and other operations makes a perfect feedstock, and the research to efficiently convert it to alcohol, diesel or fuels similar to gasoline is well under way, but it's not available NOW, and what IS available is, as you say, heavily subsidized and wasteful.

Seeing the potential for home refueling with CNG much earlier in my career is what got me really onboard the whole alt-fuel movement, and I believe it still has the ability to change everything, and sooner than the alternatives.

William Engwer

Comment by Joseph Chiang on April 9, 2009 at 7:03am

The Hindus believe the cow is holy. Perhaps they are right. How about methane based vehicles. Renewable energy!

Thanks Paul, I guess I was right, a scam. Send me $5.00 and I'll send you a thank you note, probably more valuable, too.

Comment by Bonnie S on April 9, 2009 at 5:08am

William Engwer:

I did not know that Fuelmaker was going out of business, but found this:

“Fuelmaker, the company that creates the PHILL compressed natural gas filling stations for residential and commercial use, has just been driven into involuntary bankruptcy. You may recall that Fuelmaker is owned by Honda, which had been in negotiations last year to sell the company to a number of different suitors, most notably to T. Boone Pickens' Clean Energy Fuels. None of those negotiations resulted in a sale.
Fuelmaker's bankruptcy leaves a number of questions as to how companies relying on PHILL fueling units will get their products serviced, and it also casts doubts on the future of CNG vehicles for private residential use. Fuelmaker president John Lyon has hopes that another suitor will "see this as an opportunity and come to the rescue."
We're not ready to count ourselves among those that believe the automaker has ulterior motives in closing up shop at Fuelmaker”

After doing some further research, I’m not surprised. Nothing weird about it. Its just economics. First, the thing costs anywhere from $5K to $7K installed. Also, you may not get any credits on your NG bill as you might at a central fueling location. The credit in Utah is pretty substantial at about $0.50/gge resulting in a fuel bill of about $0.90/gge. The unit also must be installed outside, or you’ll bear the wrath of your local fire department and your insurance company. Even if installed outside, I sure wouldn’t trust the general populace to mess around with NG at 3000 psi. If you do the research, these things are known to spring leaks and apparently do not have a sensor to shut them off, although this feature could easily be added. Anyway, do the math and these things simply just won’t pay for themselves. Hence, the only customers are those that don’t care about the cost or economics or the safety aspects AND have a CNG vehicle. That’s not much of a customer base.

That aside, I’m a firm believer in CNG as a fuel for vehicles and am solidly invested in CLNE for one. Contrary to what some readers think, I’m also a believer in biofuels, but I hate those subsidies that rob us taxpayers and fuel vehicles at the expense of our food supply and water quality in the rivers and oceans (growing corn takes a substantial amount of land and fertilizers). Eventually we may get to a high percentage of renewables, but don’t count on it for decades. Until then, people really need to embrace the Pickens Plan.

Bonnie

Comment by Paul on April 8, 2009 at 1:59pm

Hi Joe,

The 'it' is a 'proprietary' new calendar that cannot, will not ever be adopted by the public as a way to make the weeks & months logical. I took the bait months ago and got a peek at it. Like I said it's cute, but it's also stupid -- Even the Soviets didn't try to go that far in social reforms!

I'd've been ok to ignore it (again), but for the mail blast not just here but in Solar Power too. And since you opened the door, I felt free to express my opinion. The focus of the idea is for companies to send him $5 per person to use his crazy calendar. It's actually quite funny -- It ain't gonna happen!

Support the FairTax!

Comment by William Engwer on April 8, 2009 at 1:18pm

For people who really want to get involved with deploying CNG as a viable motor vehicle fuel, an interesting opportunity has arisen. The Fuelmaker company that manufactures the Phill home CNG refueling device is in bankruptcy, as of a couple of days ago. If you don't already know, this is essentially a high-pressure pump that can refuel a natural gas powered vehicle from the home gas line. It makes refueling a CNG vehicle rather like recharging a plug-in electric.Obviously, the natural-gas-to-home infrastructure is already in place, and services a huge number of residences nationwide. Mr. Pickens' company was on the verge of purchasing Fuelmaker a while back, but my understanding, possibly wrong, is that bookkeeping irregularities within Fuelmaker quashed the deal. American Honda was at one time the major stakeholder in Fuelmaker, and as Honda also had the cleanest vehicle on the planet in the form of the CNG powered Civic, this seemed to me to be a match made in heaven. I don't know what happened, or why, and I don't have the time to research it all, but SURELY, SOMEONE must see the tremendous potential that home refueling of vehicles with CNG has for the future. Even though major manufacturers have been slow off the mark to offer desirable CNG vehicles, the retrofitting of existing vehicles is relatively straightforward technically and can provide widely distributed employment opportunities, even in this economy. If Fuelmaker's intellectual property isn't available for some reason, it shouldn't really be too difficult or expensive to bring a competitive unit to market, but the desire and commitment to make it happen, rather than to wait for others to do it will have to be there. Please SOMEONE, pick up the ball. William Engwer

Comment by Joseph Chiang on April 8, 2009 at 11:43am

Thanks, I have no idea what "it" is. I looked at his site and it looked like you had to sign up for emails and emails and emails and no idea what you were signing up for other than it was supposed to save the world, but then I thought that was why we elected Obama.

Comment by Paul on April 8, 2009 at 9:24am

Hey Joe,

He's been pushing it from the 'new Ideas' forum for a long time. If it was a purely theoretical discussion the concept would be 'cute'... but in the real world I see it as having less than a snowball's chance in "7734" ( <-- invert monitor to view 'joke' )

Yes I too wish that folks wouldn't use the 'Send e-mail to Group' button.

The Light is Green!

Comment by Joseph Chiang on April 7, 2009 at 6:27pm

I got an email from some company called BDB. It looks like a scam on the surface. Anyone know anything about it, is it legit? If so, what is it?

Comment by Arno Lundin on April 4, 2009 at 9:11pm

Bonnie you were never dismissed.
Oh humble I approach thee thy investment goddess.
I too have recommended CLNE and supporting businesses.
Sadly you dis the bio reactor and have said it's patent is loop holed and technology not cutting edge. Apparently the Industry experts in the 100's dis agree with your evaluation.

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