Natural Gas Takes Center Stage in Las Vegas

Over a year ago, I launched the Pickens Plan with a single goal in mind: to end America's addiction to foreign oil. It's been a long 13 months, and I'm not saying this because I've spent $60 million of my own money to open people's eyes to this problem. I'm saying this because back on July 8, 2008, we knew how to end this dependence. We had the answers then, and we had them six months later when the new Congress was seated on January 6.

Those answers are finally coming into focus, and I saw so myself on Monday at the National Clean Energy Summit. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has long recognized the perilous consequences of our present energy policy -- make that our lack of an energy policy -- and over the past year he has hosted key leaders from the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors at three different summits. A Who's Who in America RSVPs, and Monday's gathering was no different: Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis were joined by industry leaders such as Dow Corning's Stephanie Burns and Gen. Wesley Clark of Growth Energy. Solar advocates such as John Woolard of BrightSource showed up as did Denise Bode of the American Wind Energy Association. Senator Tim Wirth of the U.N. Foundation served as moderator.

Senator Reid knows that developing an energy policy will not only keep hard-earned American dollars here at home, but it will create jobs and strengthen our economy. That's why he joined Senators Menendez and Hatch to cosponsor the NAT GAS Act in the Senate and encourage the use of natural gas vehicles and the development of refueling infrastructure. His leadership has been crucial, but on Monday it was clear to all that he's not alone.

Al Gore is on board. As everyone knows, our former Vice President has single-handedly committed himself to fighting global warming. In 2007, his considerable efforts were recognized when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This Monday, he endorsed using natural gas instead of diesel as the fuel to power 18-wheelers. That's big news.

Over the last year, Al and I have had plenty of discussions. He would like to see all our vehicles powered by electric batteries, but batteries can't power big trucks. Not yet, at least. Al knows that natural gas is cleaner than diesel and it's American.

"I want to thank Boone Pickens for not giving up on natural gas. Now [it] turns out we've got more than we ever dreamed we did," Bill Clinton said during his remarks.

President Clinton needn't thank me. We should all thank our lucky stars that recent technological advances have made it possible to tap into significant shale gas reserves in the Lower 48. This is a game changer, the ultimate Hail Mary pass. And just like my friend Roger Staubach's long bomb to Drew Pearson in the 1975 playoffs, it comes just as time is running out.

The U.S. trade deficit took a big jump in June, up 4 percent from May to $27 billion. The main culprit? Rising oil prices. Thanks to a spike in crude oil in June, energy-related imports rose to $22.4 billion from $17.7 billion.

We're running out of time, but we're not running out of natural gas. According to the Potential Gas Committee at the Colorado School of Mines, America's natural gas resources have jumped 39 percent over the last two years. You heard me correctly. Our natural gas reserves are actually increasing, not declining. At current production rates, "the current recoverable resource estimate provides enough natural gas to supply the U.S. for the next 90 years."

Our country is blessed with countless resources, but we've overlooked this one for much too long. I'm glad to report that this is finally starting to change.

"A year or so ago I started taking missionary lessons from a group supporting T. Boone Pickens. I've taken the missionary lessons. I've met with him, and I've been converted. I now belong to the Pickens church."

That last comment from Senator Reid got a lot of laughs. The truth is we are all singing from the same songbook. America has more natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil. But we've got to put it to work for us. The only way that's going to happen is for each of us to call or email our Representatives and Senators and tell them to pass the NAT GAS Act.

P.S. Enjoy this video with highlights from the event.

Follow T. Boone Pickens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pickensplan

Comments

[techron]

1) Natural gas use will lower our energy related deficits.

For those that don't understand what this means...ea­ch year your dollars buy less than they did before because we are exporting dollars...­devaluing our US currency each and every day. If you think you are poor now just wait till gas is 10 $ per gallon...~­2/3 because oil went to 250 $ a barrel and ~1/3 becuase the dollar has been devalued buy dollar exports.

2) Natural gas creates 1/2 the C02 as oil.

It may be as low as 1/3 if you consider refining and transport C02 production.

Natural Gas is primarily methane, CH4.

One carbon for every four Hydrogen atoms.

Gasoline and other liquid fuels approach two hydroges for every carbon atom.

One carbon for every two hydrogens.

[Leper]

>> 1) Natural gas use will lower our energy related deficits.

Yes, temporarily.

>> One carbon for every two hydrogens.

That sounds like a song by Jan and Dean.

[techron]

3) Forget about the hydrogen economy and fuel cells in transportation. Even if all the problems are solved the power to weight ratio and power to cost ratio are prohibitive. No one will have an extra 1/4 million dollars to spend on these pie in the sky demo cars except bailed out bank and finance execs and Credit Default Swap traders.

4) Getting CNG infrastructure is a chicken and egg problem.

The cars need to be made CNG ready from the factory.

The fueling stations need to be in place at a critical level for the general public to switch over in significant numbers.

Either one missing and this will be a slow trick change over in the 1/2 century time frame.

We need this to be a 1/2 decade switch over. So we can get off the pay for jehadist training payroll support program. (And for the above mentioned dollar export problem.)

Jump start Solution:

Allow for 100% right off of CNG ready cars and trucks coming off the assembly line.
The added expense part that is of the following technology add -ons.

Have vehicle technology that the engine controllers can identify if CNG is present in vehicle to burn.
Burn it at either 100% or at 10 to 25 %. User-driver selectable preferred.

[techron]

If CNG fueling stations are few and far between for a while then the 10-25% will allow for CNG burning most all of the time. With the remaining fuel energy being good ole Status Quo Gasoline. (SQG)

Added benifit:
Engines can be higher compression and thus higher efficiency and thus higher gas mileage.

A small tank or large tank can be an option depending on the users location.
(Oklahoma, Utah folks would typically buy with the large tanks and drive on 100% CNG most often.

When your local area has been upgraded with more CNG stations it will be cost effective to swap out to a bigger tank or add another tank to the existing one.

If this is 5 to 10 years down the road and the the car is well used perhaps we could have another cash 4 clunkers program but now trade up from 30 MPG to 50MPG because technology and all those great, creative engineers will have solved more problems so the fleets will get 50 MPG on average.
The fueling stations and technology will be firmly in place and we can be energy independent

(This is assuming those in government and in industry relies that it will be engineers that will solve our problems not bankers and traders.)

U lisn'n Pickens, Obama, Reid, Gore, Ford, GM, Chrysler..­. ?

I know Honda and Toyota R so won't ask.

[MyTake]

Well, Mr. Pickens, you just cannot STAND to see or assist the population in becoming free from you, your like minded friends and your interlocked energy cartels that have wreaked absolute havoc on the environment since the day of that John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil Monopoly. Oh, did I mention that Exxon operates in the Alberta Tar Sands which is the most massive environmentally polluting and toxic venture ever created on earth -- all just to feed the U.S. SUV crowd.

Come to think of it, you are still investing heavily in Exxon. So don't you dare preach environment along side the gifted Nobeler's named Gore and Chu. Chu attempted to eliminate DOE hydrogen research funding, wants to paint pavement white and now has suggested the Chinese only drive on weekends to reduce global warming. You should hire that guy.

And switching from wind to natural gas and installing natural gas stations along the west coast is something akin to you spending your $60 million to promote the Climate Change scam.

Try this on for size, Mr. T. Boone. The Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology is ready to go but the oil cartel are not installing hydrogen gas pumps on their service station lots. Since neither you, Gore or Chu can utter the phrase, collectively none of you know realize there is more renewable energy in a barrel of water than there is in a barrel of oil or gas.

How about just retiring!

[JShep]

Hate to dispell the myth that hydrogen is a clean energy source, but...Ther­e is no natural occurring hydrogen on earth. Currently, the most economical source is to extract it from natural gas. Since natural gas is a hydro- "carbon", of course, this produces CO2 in the process. Also, additional natural gas and electricity are required to extract the hydrogen from natural gas. Hydrogen is not the clean energy source it is made out to be.

[DougDeWitt]

True, that the most economical source of hydrogen is extracting it from natural gas. However, in an energy-banking algorithm the cost of electricity necessary to produce hydrogen and oxygen, because it comes from raw generation is relatively inexpensive, vs.the revenue generated by fully co-generated, 100% renewable base-load.

Were such a system required to purchase hydrogen, natural gas would be the cheapest source. Fortunately, the Native Sun Energy system doesn't require purchasing hydrogen beyond its own "in-house" generation using raw renewable to produce bulk gas using commercial electrolysis units.

If you're interested in more information on this revolutionary technology, please note the link in my comment, below. Thanks.

[MyTake]

While this system would help, is still a commercial product to be sold by corporations to the citizens. This still makes the citizen beholden to corporate power and does not make them able to create their own electricity from water.

Think of it this way, if you drove your hydrogen fuel cell Honda FCX vehicle home from work, parked it in the garage, left it running overnight with an electrolysis unit plugged into it which would produce hydrogen gas overnight. If that process can produce more hydrogen gas than what you need to run the fuel cell in your house and car requires, then you are free of energy corporations forever.

Here is a Verizon communications center in NJ that has six hydrogen fuel cell electrical generators providing 90% of building power and generates all of their hot water requirements: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/06/10/verizon-call-switching-center-powered-by-fuel-cells/ . Gee, I wonder why the world's media are not talking a lot about that building.

[MyTake]

Let me tell you something.

Separate the two hydrogen atoms from the oxygen atom in the water molecule. Flow the hydrogen atoms against a suitable membrane with ambient oxygen on the other side. The water molecule snaps back together releasing a small amount of electrical energy. Do this a gazillion times on a square nanometer surface and you can draw the electrical current off and run an electric motor with it.

Now since 90% of the global population lives within 100 miles of an ocean coastline, then you simply need to go off shore and have small profile devices to collect wave, current, solar and wind energies to create the electricity to run the electrolysis units and flow the hydrogen gas to the shoreline where it is compressed and distributed or distribute by pipeline.

And what do you care if hydrogen is cracked from natural gas? If the transportation and buildings converted to hydrogen fuel cells, you don't a gazillion gas and diesel engines running around your cities and towns destroying air quality and the health of the citizens.

[JShep]

A few comments for thought:
1. WE currently import 15% of our natural gas. There is no guarantee a major increase in NG consumption won't just increase our imports. The regs for exploration and new drilling will have to be modified, more areas will have to be opened to drilling and that will be a tough one to get past the environmentalists.

2. With the switch toward more renewable energy, there will be a greater need for NG-fired power plants. They are the only type that can quickly react to dramatic changes in wind & solar produced power when the wind don't blow or the sun don't shine.

3. Over the past decade, most new power plants have been NG-fired plants. As a result, there has been a major price increase in NG for home heating over this same period. A greater increase in NG usage could only lead to higher costs for homeowners heating with NG.

Every option to our energy problems has its side effects. Just look what increased ethanol production did to world food prices. And when the environmentalists stopped the expansion of nuclear power, we just got more carbon based power and its associated pollution. We need a comprehensive energy plan...and it rightfully will include NG, but it cannot be based primarily on NG. The cap& trade bill just places restrictions on carbon energy, and "hopes" there will be sufficient technological advances in time for the replacement power required. We must have a plan.

[DougDeWitt]

With total respect for your enthusiasm, and feeling your heart in the right place, I must correct you on your point regarding NG being the only option that can react quickly to dramatic changes in wind and solar power.

There is new technology soon to make its commercial deployment debut, storing wind and solar in the form of hydrogen and oxygen, and burning it to drive high-tech steam turbine technology. The technology is capable of generating power on less than sixty-seconds notice, and with no emission whatever -- the closed system makes, then recaptures steam for recycling.

http://whigsntories.blogspot.com/2009/08/on-recent-marriage-of-steam-turbine.html

[max08]

How much fossil fuel does it take to get a barrel (or however its measured) of natural gas out of the ground? Anyone know?

I know that Cornell University determined it takes 1.5 gallons of fossil fuel to create 1 gal of gas made from corn.

We are not getting a clear picture of the problem. We're all sounding like the nutjobs on health care reform. Uninformed and running on rumor fumes.

[Leper]

Natural Gas is NOT a resource. A resource is something that can be generated over and over again. The supply of natural gas is finite in the same way that the supply of oil is finite.

I am not say that we should not use natural gas. I am saying that it, like oil, is a dead end. We need to look into REAL resources like solar, wind, hydroelectric and nuclear (although I would want to proceed cautiously with nuclear power).

[IDIOTA]

Rhetorically, this is more convincing than your last piece, but I cannot forget what you did to Kerry. Reid may have your support, but he has been losing mine. If you want me to believe in Reid, then Reid needs to demonstrate leadership in Congress over a whole range of issues.

Also, you seem to suggest that America switch from an addiction to foreign fuel to an addiction to a domestic fuel whose negative environmental impact is not insignificant.

I can't trust you -- because of your swift boat activity -- so when you say that you have spent 60 million in 13 months in order to promote natural gas, it seems to me that you expect to make a lot more.

[Dez3]

Agree!

[dukeitout]

Thanks Mr. Pickens for promoting natural gas. We have the ability to produce an abundance of it here to provide for our needs. It burns cleaner than coal or oil and will go a long way to decrease our dependence on these polluting substances.
----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----Oops! I just found out you were a Republican. I take it all back.

[condor101]

What a bunch of Lies and Fraud.
Pickens talked about Wind energy and the bailed on that plan.

He and his henchman want to keep making billions with oil and gas fuels. Wind and Solar energies would never give them the same returns.
Heck, people may just get wise and place small wind turbines and solar panels on their homes and get FREE energy.

Pickens doesn't want that to happen.
His ilk want you to keep paying for fuel.

Don't believe a word of a coward and thief.

[moneyman1]

Have you ever heard of organic gardening ?? My My, what did the pilgrims and Ben Franklin and George Washington eat without fossil fuel - give me a break ???

[harrync]

There IS going to be increased demand for energy. It would be nice if we could talk people into conservation or a simpler life-style, but I don't see much hope of that in the short run. Basically we have two choices for the increased energy demand - burn a lot more coal, or burn a lot more natural gas. The extraction problems of gas are real, but probably can be mitigated to a large degree with proper regulation. But nat gas's problems are still nothing compared to the extraction problems with coal. So there's the choice for right now - nat gas or coal. Anyone care to defend coal?

[RegGolb]

How about making a liquid hydrocarbon fuel by combining natural gas and coal. Chemically, this can be done and it makes a lot of sense.

[GuidoVanHorn]

or option 3...nuclea­r.

if you could get 100% heat to electric conversion, 1 KG of weapon grade plutonium could power the entire united states for 3 minutes.

Wind and Solar are great and definitely need to be part of the mix, but solar panels take 4 years or more to create the same amount of energy needed create the cell itself...a­nd they aren't cheap. If the wind doesn't blow you don't have energy.

For uninterrupted power supply, Coal/Natural Gas and Nuclear are the only reliable options...­Coal and Natty gas have air pollution issues. invest in fast breeder reactor technology and we can get even more production out of less fuel, lower the amount of total nuclear waste and get rid of the super radioactive waste that is the major deterrent of curren Nuclear technology.

Hydropower needs to be more utilized as well...we need to replace our old dams that aren't fish friendly first. (Grand Coulee though awesome compeletely killed off northern Columbia River salmon)

[doubter421]

Natural gas is used as a feedstock for synthetic fertilizers which are keeping billions of people alive. Before we started using fossil fuels, how many humans lived on this planet? Industrial agriculture needs fossil fuel. What happens if we run short on gas or oil?

[moneyman1]

Now let me tell you about T-Bone Pickens' magical natural gas. I own a house in Massachusetts which was built in 1963. Up until 1991, this house was heated with a hot water boiler fired with number 2 fuel oil, but we decided in 1991 to convert to natural gas because it was so "cheap". Gas was also billed as very clean burning compared to fuel oil, thus eliminating annual cleaning and nozzle replacement. Well fast forward to 2007 and the complete failure of our chimney due to acid attack of the mortar joints causing settlement of the tile lining and cracking of the tiles. This is now such a widely understood phenomenon that the State of Massachusetts has modified the building code to require all gas burning flues for gas appliances to be built with a stainless steel liner inside the tile liner to protect against mortar joint failure. The mortar joint failure can cause carbon monoxide leakage into the living space - possibly causing death or serious sickness for the occupants - so go for it T-Bone but be sure to mention the downside of crappy gas quality to your potential customers in advance so they can make an informed choice instead of a choice which could kill them.

[Leper]

Thank you.