Annual Energy Outlook 2006 with Projections to 2030, Oil and Natural Gas
Posted on 09/04/2006 9:46:15 AM PDT by thackney
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- From a nondescript industrial building in west Eugene cluttered with candy-colored auto bodies, John Green is preparing to change the world.
Green believes he's truly built a better mousetrap -- in this case, a sleek three-wheeled car that gets 70 miles per gallon, burns fuel that costs $1 per gallon and emits virtually no pollutants -- and that the world will soon be beating a path to his door.
He and his partners plan to sell the Eco-Fueler American Roadster for just shy of $20,000. After they showed a prototype at car shows in Los Angeles and Portland and at an agricultural expo in Tulare, Calif., earlier this year, they got about 350 orders for the low-slung vehicle.
Eco-Fueler Corp. officials say the first production vehicle will roll out in about a month, and within six months they hope to be building 100 to 150 vehicles per month.
Green, a Springfield real estate developer and inventor, said he wants to change the world, not get rich off his enterprise.
"This will turn the auto industry upside down," he said.
With gas prices back at $3 per gallon, and a war-torn Middle East threatening to send them higher, the company would appear to be hitting its stride at the right time. The American Roadster has a sleek design with a removable hard top, and it promises sporty performance, high mileage and low pollution. The production models will run on a water-cooled, horizontally opposed engine that will generate about 125 horsepower in a vehicle that weighs just 1,500 pounds.
"We're going to fly," Green said.
But the vehicle also has its limitations. It has a single front seat, a tiny bench seat in back and no trunk. Strictly speaking, it's a motorcycle, which allows the company to bypass costly federal crash test and emissions requirements.
It's meant to be a commuter car, or a vehicle for a Sunday driver, or something to tow behind an RV.
And to fuel it, you would need natural gas at your home.
The key piece of technology driving the American Roadster lies not under its swoopy fiberglass skin but inside a 4-foot-long black box that comes with the vehicle.
Inside the box is a machine that compresses natural gas. Owners of the American Roadster will connect the compressor to their natural gas line and use it to fuel the car. It takes about 4 1/2 hours to fill the two eight-gallon canisters behind the back seat.
The compressor is Green's patented invention, and he said it marks a significant advance in compression technology that has not changed for about 65 years. Green's machine uses hydraulics to compress natural gas, instead of the piston-driven compression that's been the standard method. His patented technique is far more reliable and efficient than the conventional compression method, he said.
Right now, the cars are being assembled in a 19,000-square-foot industrial building. Green said they're looking for space in Springfield to build the compressors.
Eventually, if the cars take off, Green said the company will construct a series of smaller regional factories to build the vehicles, rather than have one big factory.
Despite the vehicle's light weight, low profile and fiberglass body, Green said it will be safe. Its steel frame, roll bar and suspension is designed by Pat Blair, who has designed NASCAR racing cars.
Green's background with compressed natural gas goes back to 1972, when gas prices were soaring. He sold kits that allowed gasoline-powered cars to run off compressed natural gas. But the compressors failed, and Green had to return three-quarters of the money, said Jerry Hendricks, the company's acting CEO and CFO.
Hendricks and Green founded Eco-Fueler Corp. in 2004 and have been running the company on "very little capital," Hendricks said. "It's been a real boot strap operation."
"People have pledged all the money we need," Green said.
But the company, and Green's technology, is starting to attract interest from investors, would-be dealers and other auto makers, he said. Green said he had one major manufacturer ask him if he would consider licensing his technology. He turned them down flat out.
"This is not going to get buried," he said. "This is not going to be put on a shelf somewhere."
He saw what happened to General Motors' now legendary electric car, the EV1, which is the subject of new documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" General Motors leased the EV1 to consumers in California starting in the late 1990s, but pulled the plug on the vehicle a few years later, rounding up the cars when leases expired and crushing them in the California desert.
"It will not end up like the EV1, I promise you," he said. "David hit Goliath in the head with a rock and that's exactly what we're going to do."
Oil extraction from sand and shale produces cheaper energy than liquifying natural gas. I'm underwowed.
Compressing gas eh.....so needs some cooling ...further adding to the costs....enjoy the pipe dream suckers.
This could not have been planned to fall that way, but it sure is a long-odds coincidence.
sucker would blow up faster than a pinto.
...and another coincidence is both posters have the same name.
They have these three wheelers in Bangkok called putt putts. They run on propane. The tank is conveniently located beneath the passenger seat above the rear axle. This makes it particularly susceptible to rear end collisions. Every now and then you hear a blast in the distance and it ain't Al Qaeda.
Could be a winner, the energy you buy for your house is taxed at lower rate than energy you buy at the pump.
Lets just assume it takes the same amount of energy to power your car, one form is taxed to the hilt and one is just taxed.
Get a couple hundred thousand vehicles on the road that are fueled by natural gas, and see how long natural gas remains comparitively "cheap,' speaking of the fuel itself, not to mention the taxes.
"one form is taxed to the hilt and one is just taxed."
You'll see the same thing happen, that happened with kerosene. On road use, versus home use, will be penalized. They're not going to give up the tax revenue, if this gets widespread acceptance at all.
People are finding more things to do with natural gas, so home heating costs with NG have gone sky high and will get even worse it a lot decide to use it in cars, too. More drilling? Sure, but can they keep up with demand?
It would be quite a thing for them to tax your home natural gas bill as if it was all used on the road. This could help keep them in check. I know don't hold your breath. We could end up with two gas meters on our house, and lots of government inspectors looking for illegal hookups.
This is one of the top ten reasons why I will never qualify to become a detective.
*Unless the definition could be expanded to where this guy could be considered to be a detective:
Please don't tell the people that there is a nearly unlimited supply of extremely cheap oil right here in the good ole USA. Nobody is supposed to know that!
Shale oil may be nearly unlimited in quantity and it may be right here in the US, but extremely cheap it is not. There's a very good reason why we haven't used it yet. It costs too darn much to get out of the ground. Maybe it will be cheap in the future when our extraction technology gets better, but it's not right now.
Title of the next thread on FR - Soaring natural gas prices spur widespread drilling
...Strictly speaking, it's a motorcycle, which allows the company to bypass costly federal crash test and emissions requirements....
Hmmm...
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