Free Republic

The future or the flavor of the month? Some of the businesspeople who crowded around as driver David Cox pumped natural gas into his 18- wheeler Monday weren’t sure that the fuel – plentiful and cheap in the United States because of shale drilling – is inevitable as a substitute for diesel. But that didn’t stop them from pulling out their iPhones to document the moment as they considered the evidence. “You see the oil companies getting into it,” said Marion Barnes, president of Frontier Trailer Associates in Rocky Mount, N.C. “They’re spending billions, not millions. Boone Pickens is spending...

Would you pay $2.14 for a gallon of gas? I know I would. According to AAA, the nationwide average for a gallon of gasoline is $3.80... Diesel is even more expensive at $4.06. Yet despite high fuel costs across the country, a select group of drivers are paying only $2.14 a gallon... more than $1.50 below the national average. What's the catch? To be honest, there isn't one. These drivers aren't getting some "special deal," and this isn't some publicity stunt that's only available to a select few. They're simply filling up their tanks with a different kind of transportation...

Two public fueling stations for natural gas-powered vehicles are set to open next year as part of initiatives that include new buses and converting at least 40 city-parish vehicles to run on the fuel. The efforts come in a wider push by government and industry to develop natural gas as an alternative vehicle fuel that is touted as a cleaner burning and cheaper than gasoline. The city-parish is planning to open one fueling station at the public works facility on East University Avenue by next fall. The Advocate reports a second station is under construction by Apache Corporation, a Houston-based...