WE must take the lead

I have seen many forum posts and blogs calling for the Government to come along and be our saviors. In my opinion, government guarantees and loans are not what we need. We need to take action for ourselves. It seems that government has messed up energy policy at every turn. I would rather have them out of it and let us get it done right. Choose you course with your dollars. Of course, I wouldn't say no to tax credits for doing what is right. In my opinion, that is the route that must be taken. Bigger tax CUTS for those who can afford these technologies, not bigger TAXES on everyone, including those who embrace the new technologies. As those who can afford these things buy, the technology becomes cheaper. Oddly enough, the old way becomes cheaper, too, since there is less demand. So those who cannot afford to change now may be able to in a few years if they save a little with cheaper gas prices. Also, in a few years, these vehicles will be on the market second hand for people who can't afford a new one. It is gradual, I know, but unless Uncle Sam is willing to pony up the cash for us all to buy a new car, gradual is the only way it can be done. As far as home use of NG goes, the idea is that electricity may become cheaper with greater supply, allowing people to switch away from NG in the home. Of course, there are many technologies out there right now to save some NG use in the home, such as instant hot water heaters. They claim to use 40% less NG every month since you only heat the water you use. When the water heater dies, get one of those and start pocketing a little money every month. Save up for a conversion to CNG in your car. Then take the money you save there and use it for electric heat… so on and so on…
The cheaper electricity part is why I have a problem with the offshore electric generation. It seems that in 100% of the cases, the electricity prices go up for “Green Energy Consumption.” Sure, I would gladly pay a little more for electricity if it solved all of our problems, but it does not make a good alternative to NG when it is overpriced. People will continue to use NG in their homes to avoid the electric bill. Supply will stay too low for economic conversion of vehicles because when too many vehicles convert, the high demand of home and vehicle causes the price to skyrocket. So “green” electricity needs to be made affordable, not at a premium. That is why I like Pickens Plan. I think he realizes that the electricity must be cheap enough to convince people to convert their home use to electric to free it up for vehicles. Finally, we will have inexpensive green energy without someone trying to gouge the price just because of the green or renewable label!

Tags: pickens plan, cng vehicles, cuts, government, green, renewable, tax, taxes

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Comment by John on July 30, 2008 at 6:47pm: To contest Jim's comment, watch TBP's latest video blog. He mentions conusmers buying the vehicles and getting tax breaks in CA. Yes, he first wants to concentrate on fleets, of course, that is covered under the "those who can afford" statement I made. But ultimately, we all need to make changes to get off foreign oil. Whether the change be CNG, Hydrogen or full electric, we will have to make a change. And, The lower income individuals will probably be the last to convert. Hopefully the oil prices come down a little for them so they can make it through.

Comment by BurgessKJ on July 28, 2008 at 12:25am: I agree with Jim; long-term tax breaks for both private & commercial wind and other solar alternative energy. Converting existing rolling stock of cars to NG is likely overpriced, and the benefits too short term for most consumers.

Oh, there ARE other high-milage conversions, but NG would be the last on that long list.

John, if you can start a business converting fleet vehicles to NG, and make a profit (without gouging your customers, unlike OPEC & the 'Big Six' oil companies), then knock yourselft out, and we wish you good fortune.

Just telling everybody else to do that doesn't make personal economic sense.

My own first-hand observation:
I just spent last week in a rental with kinetic-recovery electrical chargers, and a small 4-cylindar engine. I never filled the tank until the return, sometimes getting over 57mpg, and drove all week through the San Francisco region from Sacramento to San Jose & back again ON ONE TANK OF GAS.

Sure it had a sluggish response sometimes, but it could make 90mph on the highway (traffic & constabulary permitting), and I drove over 500 miles for less than $60 worth of benzine gas (at California prices!).

If you can do that, in an affordable car, or conversion, then more power to you. I will await that good news. Until I have proof, let's focus on some proven (if less-used to date) technologies.

As for housing & commercial property there are too many other sources of electrical power, other than NG. The southern United States can easily be saturated with solar PV & Stirling (thermal) power, and the entire continent can be covered with wind farms (also solar, if second-hand). With the Pickens Plan guiding State & Federal mandates to tie these new commercial grade projects, and longer-term tax incentives, we should more than solve our national energy AND financial problems.

Comment by Ted Santos on July 27, 2008 at 5:55pm: I believe we need a combination of alternatives to become more independent on foreign oil. Wind power will not do it alone. There is solar power that is available now for instance. It will heat your water as well as generate electricity that once done will turn back your meter and save on the electricity you purchase from the electric company. Check out www.srasolar.com for information. Also there is and has been available for years now a water heater that needs no tank. It heats your water on demand. Works on natuaral gas as well as electric. Every little step helps to save on foreign oil. You are right, don't depend on those bozos in Washington, they are not looking out for us. We should have known when in the 70's with the gas crisis that we should have been looking at alternatives. Batteries for electric cars are becoming more efficient every year. It's up to us to do something about the problem.

Comment by jim mize on July 27, 2008 at 3:10pm: So what he needs is govt support. What he is asking us to do is pressure Congress and the president to act on the long term tax credits and the improvement of the electrical grid that will allow wind and then solar to be distributed nationwide.

So this is something so big we do need govt to be involved but the govt is supposed to be us. But from looking at the remarks on this forum it is clear there is still a lot of disagreement about how to go about it, which is reflected in what the congress is saying.

Plus it astounds me how people fail to either really read the plan and understand it or let their own desires color how they perceive it. A lot of people think this is going to lower the price of gas. Wrong Wrong Wrong.

What can lower gas right now is for the markets to get the perception that there will be more exploration and conservation. People however will start consuming at their previous levels if the price of gas does go back down and we will go through this cycle all over again.

Pressure your congressman to approve drilling, windfarms, nuclear power plants and on your on personal terms - conserve, ride a bike when you can. Don't just go driving through the countryside for fun. We are really the only country that does this and that is why we consume so much not to mention what we are driving are SUV in a lot of cases.

Go and listen to his testimony to congress where he gets into a lot more detail about the plan and I think you will better understand the scope of this.

Comment by jim mize on July 27, 2008 at 3:01pm: After reading your statement not really sure what you are trying to say but will give this a try.

Pickens is not calling for people to convert anything. He is calling for the switch of ng for electrical generation to windpower. What he is asking the govt to do is make the tax credit for windpower to be made longterm instead of the 1 year renewals that discourages long term manufacturing investment in windturbine production. He is also asking the govt to improve and link the grid natiowide so that wind and eventually solar in the southwest can feed the nation's power needs. He is again not asking people to switch off ng in their homes he is talking about the use of ng to generate electricity.

Now everyone is getting all in a lather to convert their vehicles to ng to save some money and if it makes economic sense to do that then knock yourself out. He is calling for the conversion of high use fleet vehicles such as buses, trucks, trains, etc where conversion makes more sense and new cars to be marketed that GM and Ford already market overseas.

Now on the subject of tax credits windpower does need some because if coal was required to be clean there would be a level playing field. Once windfarms are built the maintenance has been estimated to be from 5 to 15 % of the total lifetime cost. So basically the costs are stable once the initial cost is incurred, not so with coal which is going up in cost.

Now he estimates this will take about 10 years to complete so this is going to take a while and I would suspect we will see a break through in cheaper more efficient solar cells and electric cars becoming the majority of cars sold in the market by then.

Those who are looking for a quick fix, understand this is not it, nothing is!!!

But it is a promising start.