Posted on 09/09/2009 11:32:49 AM PDT by posterchild
AS "CASH FOR CLUNKERS" DEMONSTRATED, AMERICANS love a deal. And Congress may have yet another for you when it returns from summer recess.
The plan is to offer tax credits worth up to $12,500 on the purchase of new cars and trucks. The catch is that your new vehicle must run on natural gas -- compressed natural gas, or CNG, to be precise. A Senate bill, the counterpart to the House's NAT GAS Act, also would offer up to $64,000 in tax credits on fleet vehicles, and up to $100,000 to anyone opening a CNG filling station.
Washington is beginning to wake up to the value of using this plentiful, homegrown fuel for transportation -- and that in turn could open up some intriguing investment opportunities.
Right now, only one CNG car -- Honda's Civic GX -- is available to U.S. buyers. But a dozen auto makers sell some two dozen CNG models overseas, and the Web can help you track their development. For an overview of the current cars, go to www.cngnow.com and click CNG Vehicles Around the World.
AOL Autos also is packed with good information (http://autos.aol.com/gallery/hybrid-cars-15k-25k). Likewise, CNG Chat (www.cngchat.com) lets natural-gas vehicle owners share operating tips and parts sources, and the Environmental Protection Agency offers a searchable database of hybrids (www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/byfueltype.htm).
NATURAL-GAS ENGINES -- found in some American buses and fleet vehicles -- have clear appeal. Boosters say a "gallon equivalent" of natural gas is about half the price of gasoline or diesel and produces about a third the harmful emissions. And America is swimming in the stuff.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
I wonder what hand Tbone Pickens has played in floating this trial balloon...
They build those Civics here in Indiana in the new Greensburg plant. I’ve considered buying one.
The drawbacks are that the nearest commercial fueling station is 10 miles away and the home refueling unit costs about 4 grand.
You need a pretty stout compressor to process the nat gas from your home pipe connection.
It would be a nice alternative when the Baraqqis get around to gasoline rationing.
Anybody who’s knowledgeable about the home compressor unit please Freepmail me. I’ve heard they are somewhat troublesome.
Given the widespread use of CH4 in in houses for heat and cooking I’d expect that much of the country already has pipelines and right of ways to support some fueling stations, though I’d expect pipeline capacity would need major upgrades in the next few years if such cars became popular.
Honda sells a refuleing station you hook up to your home natural gas lines and it needs yearly maintenance I believe.
I have been beating the nat gas drum for a couple years and Nancy Pelosi has invested in CLNE a nat gas refueling company. Once the corrupt pols figure this out, nat gas cars will take off.
Utan leads the nation in natural gas ‘stations’/ They are growing like crazy out there
Swimming in the stuff? Not if the greenie whacko watermelons get their way; they oppose all energy production, drilling or mining.
The refueling appliance - marketed under the name “Phill” - is expected to cost about $3,500. Incentive funding offered by AQMD and the MSRC will total $2,000 per unit for a total of 400 units, lowering the cost of each unit to $1,500 for the consumer. Installation of a unit costs an additional $1,000 to $2,000. Driving a compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle can cut fuel costs in half. On average, fueling a CNG passenger vehicle will cost about 4 cents per mile compared with 8 cents per mile for a similar gasoline vehicle.
The engines always have maintenance problems, according to the Motor pool at Tinker Air Force base.
The green energy farce isn’t about producing and using an abundance of clean fuels. It’s about power and control. The more natural gas looks like it might give us an abundance of cheap energy for the future, the Socialists will find a way to stop it.
Now Jim, Nancy does not believe this is a fossile fuel, and she is invested.
We will probably see this come to pass.
Just yesterday I was looking at a Scion xD on the road thinking to myself that if they would just put a little 3-cyl diesel in that thing it could probably get 80mpg.
But of course, with the Watermelons now in charge, that will never happen.
Is it true that a CNG vehicle has much less range per tankful than a gasoline equivalent?
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_gallon_equivalent it takes 3.82 gallons of CNG to equal 1 gallon of gasoline. Quadrupling a tank doesn’t seem like too much of a problem for a large vehicle though it might be a problem for a CNG Smart car.
One should not use Nancy and fossil in the same sentance. Not a pretty image at all.
That works so long as LNG is an exotic. Just as soon as passenger cars start to use it in any numbers, enough that there are LNG refueling stations, the taxes will be nailed on and it will no longer be cheaper than gasoline.
quite possible on the taxes
my interest is more to assure mobility than to reduce costs
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