Once in a great while events converge to make, not just news, but to make a real difference. This is one of those times.
Yesterday, Randall Stephenson, the Chairman and CEO of AT&T announced that his company was taking a giant step forward by replacing about 8,000 vehicles currently running on imported diesel with vehicles that run on domestic natural gas.
In a period when we have seen oil prices swing between $147 per barrel last summer to just over $30 per barrel this winter it is more clear than ever that American businesses cannot remain at the mercy of foreign oil suppliers.
I have been talking about reducing our dependence on foreign oil for years, and last July I introduced the Pickens Plan to show the path to make that happen.
I started talking about building out our wind and solar capacity to replace about 20 percent of the power that is now produced by using natural gas. Then I talked about using the natural gas we wouldn't need to generate electricity and use it as a transportation fuel to replace foreign oil.
Last year we spent upwards of $475 billion on foreign oil. And we imported about two-thirds of all the oil we used. It was clear to me that America was at risk. We were at risk for some foreign government from the Middle East, or Africa or South America to decide to turn a valve and cut our supplies.
The Pickens Plan is designed to reduce our exposure and it's having an impact.
As Keith Johnson wrote in his Wall Street Journal blog: "Telecoms titan AT&T has apparently been listening to the endless appeals by T. Boone Pickens to start using natural gas for cars."
The AT&T deal is a one-for-one trade. For every gallon-equivalent that AT&T uses in natural gas, that is a gallon that doesn't have to be imported.
There has been a great deal of resistance to being "green" on the part of a lot of companies. Too expensive, too chi-chi, too whatever.
Well, AT&T isn't in the business of losing money. In fact, in the face of this bleak economy, AT&T's market cap is within a few percentage points of where it was this time last year.
I wish I could say that.
So, when a company like AT&T says it is making a major commitment to come off foreign oil and go to domestic alternative fuels, that is big news. There are all kinds of good reasons for doing this. It is better for the environment -- natural gas is cleaner than diesel or gasoline. It is better for the company's bottom line -- they can plan for a more stable price and a much more stable supply. It is better for America -- the benefit of keeping American dollars circulating at home rather than in places like the Middle East is something even a geologist can understand.
Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, who has been behind the Pickens Plan since its earliest days also congratulated AT&T but, on the Sierra Club website pointed out that AT&T wanted to do even more:
"That's exciting, even wonderful, news. But the backstory is less cheerful. My sources indicate that AT&T was prepared to make an even larger commitment to CNG, but that the domestic auto industry wasn't willing to meet the customer demand -- and AT&T wanted in this economic moment to buy domestic."
That speaks to the momentum value to AT&T taking this step. The chief operating officers of other major corporations will be telling their transportation departments to take a look at what AT&T is doing and come back with a report on whether they should do it, too.
Smaller companies will look to the majors and say "if it's good for them to change 8,000 vehicles to natural gas, maybe I ought to look at my eight (or 80) trucks."
Finally, we should expect cash-starved cities, counties and states to start looking at their fleets and decide that they should begin moving to a clean, abundant, available and cheaper fuel source - natural gas.
When that happens the domestic auto industry will have found the market it says it is looking for.
The stars have aligned and AT&T is a leader in making the skies clearer so those stars are brighter.
Follow T. Boone Pickens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/boonepickens
Yes, I agree it is not going to happen overnight. But is it possible - yes it is. Does it make sense - yes it does. It will take time, and it will happen gradually as with anything. But if we do not make a first step we will have to deal with what we have - activities poisonous to our children (and theirs), dependency on some bad guys, very certain rising costs of energy .
Link: http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html
If we find a way to extract these stores we will not have to worry about natural gas fuel for many years to come. In addition, as the Earth warms, these deposits are melting with the methane gas that is released bubbling to the surface and entering our atmosphere. Methane is a much, much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 so it is really important that we do harvest this resource and burn it as a fuel so that it is converted to the less harmful CO2 and H2O which are the products of burning it.
Also, we can produce a synthetic form of natural gas or even hydrogen from almost any carbon or hydrocarbon feedstock. Things such as biodiesel, vegetable oil, methane, methanol, ethanol and even sugar, charcoal and coal can be converted to syngas with a large percentage of the hydrogen in the syngas coming from the water used in the conversion process.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=210176&title=t.-boone-pickens
Jon Stewart, no sufferer of fools these days, actually gave Mr. Pickens a chance and in the end was ready to "follow Boone Pickens out of the building" to make this thing happen.
Anyone who really cares about the planet or this country shouldn't be casting off new allies in the cause, unless you truly expect a new result with the same level of support for alternative energy that we've had up to now.
But the moon ain't quite in the Seventh House.
We are a nation stuck in an ideological rut on one side and vested interests on the other.
Secondly you are not going to replace the 1 BILLION cars on the road overnight. The better solution is to get more energy from the fuel being consumed by existing cars, whether they be powered by diesel, gas or Natural gas.
We have developed a unique solution called the PowerStation that generates and stores electricity as you drive, that does NOT increase fuel usage and causes no additional pollution. The driver gets double utilization of every gallon of fuel, transportation and electricity. It works. We have been testing it on large and small vehicles for over 2 years.
Basically, drive an hour a day and have free light all night. see www.aaes-ltd.com.
We are attempting to raise the capital to build a prototype assembly plant and dealer training center here in Uganda. It could be moved to the US. We are looking for partners to develop the market worldwide. How about we talk Mr. Pickens?
It INCREASES greenhouse gas emissions, and thus, global climate change.
We clear on that?
I think McDonalds would be a great company to recruit to the effort since they too produce a lot of used veggie oil AND they have their own fleet of trucks that supply the restaurants. Good idea!
Get some other leaders behind this. As cool as "Pickens Plan" sounds, we're not looking to build any giant golden statues of you anytime soon.
Work. With. Others. On. This.
: / You know, why not just convert to biodiseal? It'd be easier, cost efficient, and they're even growing this "miracle crop" jathropa in AMERICA that won't interfere with edible crops like CORN!
Second note to Tina. Growing crops for bio diseal consumes energy, water an requires chemicals. It's a question of BTUs in vs BTUs out. And just like alcohol, the biodiseal's numbers don't add up.
Third note to Tinal. LNG requires very little refining. In fact pumps along varous pipelines run on the very raw product that is being transported. You can drill baby drill or you can pay baby pay. It's up to you.
The same waste oil that is discarded in tons from the fast food industry on a daily basis.
Second note to Ultra: Diesel vehicles can be converted to run on strait waste oil, eliminating the need to do any refining whatsoever.
Thus, the trucks that would theoretically transport said oil could, in fact, run on it in it's crude state as well.
Third note to Ultra: Recycling any resource (as opposed to drilling or mining or growing something new) is always a better method of energy production.