Natural Gas Autos Can Help

It is refreshing to see in Washington, D.C., legislation boasting broad, bipartisan support. One such bill is the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act -- H.R. 1835 in the House and S. 1408 in the Senate.

There is a finite amount of oil available in the world. It is about 85 million barrels a day. Americans use about a quarter of that oil every day. Oil dropped to about $35 per barrel when the world spun into the recession, but now it is back at about $80 per barrel. And as the economies of the European Union, China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Korea and the other industrialized nations emerge from the recession, the competition for that oil will intensify.

As the Chinese understand, the way supply balances with demand is through price.The Chinese have locked up more than 5.2 billion barrels of oil for delivery over the next decade or so. They are buying that oil through their state-owned oil company, which is financed by their state-owned bank.

In September 2009, we imported 357 million barrels of oil at a cost of $25 billion. That represented about 63 percent of the oil we consumed in September. At current prices, we will spend about a third of a trillion dollars on imported oil over a 12-month period. That is money circulating through the economies of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Venezuela instead of South Carolina, North Dakota and Virginia.

About 70 percent of the oil we import is used as transportation fuel, refined into gasoline or diesel. We have about 250 million cars and light trucks in the national fleet. There are 6.5 million heavy-duty trucks and 18-wheelers moving goods around and across America.

Batteries may be ready for major deployment within the next decade, hydrogen fuel cells perhaps a bit further out. A battery won't push an 18-wheeler, and while we wait for fuel cells, we rely on oil from countries in unstable regions, which do not have our best interests at heart.

The one resource that can substitute for diesel in heavy-duty trucks is natural gas, of which we have more than a 100-year supply.

Recent advances in drilling techniques have made available the vast amounts of natural gas contained in the major shale deposits under Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Appalachia. The Potential Gas Committee study, in conjunction with the Colorado School of Mines, has estimated as much as 2,000 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas available for commercial recovery. By my analysis, that represents more than twice the energy that there is in the oil reserves in Saudi Arabia.

Natural gas vehicles are proven technology. There are 10 million NGVs in the world, but only 130,000 in the United States. The NAT GAS Act will help jump-start the NGV industry in America. It will grant tax credits to fleet owners to begin replacing their fleets with NGVs.

Taxis and government vehicles, school and municipal buses, express delivery and utility trucks -- in fact, any fleet that generally goes home to the "barn" each night -- are candidates for moving away from burning imported gasoline or diesel to running on domestic natural gas.

Natural gas is one of the most widely distributed natural resources in the country. Gas lines run up and down nearly every street in every community in America. Heavy-duty and fleet vehicles tend to run the same routes on a regular schedule. Drivers stop at the same places to eat, rest and refuel, so the infrastructure to service those vehicles is a relatively simple issue to solve.

Natural gas produces about half the greenhouse gases as gasoline and emits almost no particulate matter in combustion. Anyone who has waited for the school bus with their child at the curb on a cold winter morning knows how diesel burns.

Finally, depending upon foreign sources for so much of the oil we need is a security issue. Anyone old enough to remember the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s still shudders at the thought of even-odd license plates deciding which day you could buy gasoline.

And in 1974, we imported less than a quarter of the oil we needed. Today it is nearly two-thirds. The shock to our economy, much less our culture, with a similar embargo would be, to put it mildly, dramatic.

Strengthen national security. New jobs. Cleaner air. Better economy.

That's a lot from one bipartisan piece of legislation. H.R. 1835 and S. 1408 should come to a vote this fall so we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

 

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

Comments

[OkieMon]

what about all the toxicity issues with the new horizontal gas drilling/h­igh-volume hydrofracturing associated with drilling new gas wells???? see "split estate".....http://www.splitestate.com/

[research]

You got it.

"Fracking" (the extraction companies prefer "Fracing" still pronounced "fraking") is
an environmental nightmare.

Fracking uses massive amounts of water, and contaminates the ground water.

Outlaw Fracking.

[InYourWorld]

At the minimum disclose the chemicals used. As it is now they are a trade secret so by default not regulated by the EPA. fracing chemicals vary by the geologic makeup of the well, so there is a chance that not ALL fracing chemicals are hazardous, but we dont even know what they are.

[olephart]

Apply a surtax on motor fuels of $2.00 per gallon sequestering the proceeds from Congress
Use these funds for tax credits for point of use alternative energy applications (solar/wind) for both individuals and businesses and for vehicle tax credits
Require net metering with the excess power being sold back at fair market rates
Tax coal and natural gas used in electricity generation and commercial heating fuel at a rate making alternative energy competitive
Offer Government backed loans for large scale alternative energy investments
Exempt natural gas and bio fuels from the surtax
Give tax credits for the purchase and conversion of vehicles to natural gas and bio fuels
Give tax credits for the purchase of electric and plug in hybrid vehicles

[Rule Of Law]

And once more--T. Boone is a shark. That said--Ole, visited your site as I do when I want to read something with guts. You've been on quite a tear since the 1st of Nov! Your piece about Obama and the banks was so dead on I got chills. I just don't understand how folks like hume septic can have all those fans...perhaps we get not just the government we deserve, but also the kool kid, in crowd posters as well? What does that say about the thousands who post here in the same vein with regularity? They seem to be the "faithful" no matter who leads them, or where.

[olephart]

Rule, you should read ECJLA who can be found on my fan list. He writes with quill on parchment while I scribble with crayon on Manila paper. He is sincere and seeks to build with stones while I am cynical and enjoy throwing stones. I believe he lives in you neck of the woods.

I have noticed that five months ago writing anything against Obama led to being attacked by hornets but more recently less so if your topic is his centrist actions. Many Progressives are beginning to understand that they been punked.