[RockinRight]

Why DON’T we use natural gas?

Would using it in cars increase prices due to higher demand, making it a moot point AND increasing our heating costs?

[Always Right]

Is the US ignoring a fuel alternative?

Yes, they US is ignoring nuclear. The US is also ignoring the great oil resources in the Gulf and in Alaska that a plan to tap would at least put some pressure on the market to lower prices.

[WellyP]

Get onboard with this new technology. We can only hope that is is half as successful as it looks to be. http://peswiki.com/energy/Directory:Fuel_Efficiency_Alternative_Fuels Here is a great interview that explains what is going on> http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/ORLANDO-FL/WFLF-AM/jc_bell_gas_3-20-08.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=ORLANDO-FL&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&SITE_ID=1140&STATION_ID=WFLF-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Jimmy_D.&PCAST_CAT=Talk&PCAST_TITLE=Bud_Hedinger_Live_Afternoons_3p-6

[milwguy]

We could seriously reduce our reliance on foreign oil if we mandated that no electricity be generated from nat gas plants. Currently 25% of our electicity is generated that way. If we went on crash course to replace it with clean coal, nuclear, solar and wind, we could us the nat gas wasted on generating electricity to power public transport in the US. Kansas City I believe already runs their buses this way. Currently oil is twice as expensive as nat gas per btu unit, even with nat gas at historic highs. By eliminating nat gas from electric generation, more than enough would be freed up to power vehicles. Once gas demand dropped, oil would follow qucikly. Tap into Alaska, outer continental shelf and public lands, and we would be on the road to energy independance within 20 years. All we need is the political will to say screw the envirowakco.marxist Branch Algorians.

The politcal class still does not get it. Today on CNBC they showed a survey of who was to blame for high gas prices . CONGRESS led the way with 30%, Pres Bush was 17% and big oil was only 3.7%!

[mountainlion]

Natural gas takes as much energy to compress and liquefy the energy in the gas. That means 50% is wasted before it is even used.

[miliantnutcase]

Schwan’s have been using LP to fuel their fleet of trucks for years now.

[P8riot]

You mean personal methane reclamation?

[thackney]

Natural Gas Fueling Station Locations
http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/natural_gas_locations.html

[tobyhill]

If the vehicles in the US all ran on Natural Gas then because of a lack of coal or nuclear power plants the home electric cost would rise. When Katrina hit 25% of NG was taken off the market and the price doubled. Take 25% and put it in vehicles the price will again double.

[Leisler]

There is a huge natural gas field just off the tip of Cape Cod. However, Massachusetts forbids tapping into it. So, the same field that goes up into Canada, is tapped by Canadians, and then piped down into Massachusetts.

Duh. Kennedy Country.

[thackney]

Guide to Available Natural Gas Vehicles and Engines
http://www.ngvamerica.org/pdfs/marketplace/MP.Analyses.NGVs-a.pdf

[RegulatorCountry]

Honda offered (and may still offer) a Civic that runs on natural gas. There may be geographic restrictions on availability. It required a home unit called a “Phil” I think, that could be mounted on the wall of your garage and connected to your home gas line.

[mysterio]

As gasoline prices in Massachusetts near $4 a gallon and diesel is already above that level, the equivalent of a gallon of natural gas averages about $2.69.

And that's BEFORE a lot of people start running cars on it. Which means you can at least double that price. And here's the kicker : not only would you be paying more for NG than gasoline, but also your heating bill would skyrocket.

No thanks. In my opinion, we should even stop making electricity with the stuff and switch to nuclear and coal. Then we wouldn't have to bailout working Americans every year with heating subsidies.

[NeoCaveman]

If you really want to drive on nat gas you got to do these things first:

Build lots of nuke plants

Stop using nat gas for electricity and heating. Use nuke powered electricity for heating and lighting.

Then you can drive on nat gas without causing the price to double or triple.

[hermgem]

But despite large reserves of the relatively inexpensive fuel in the United States...
Since when does the media accept the fact that there are large reserves of inexpensive fuel in this country?
Problem is, this existence of large reserves is under lock, stock and barrel for 30 years by the Dem guardians sitting in Congress.
To keep fuel prices sky high for these uninformed innocents the end user, who are made to suffer from food price explosions, gasoline pricing and are forced into bearing the consequences of a shrinking employment situation.
Except of course for public servants who are graded not by performances but seniority, as well as those doing global warming research under the umbrella of a tax exempt status.
Free enterprise is for the average Joe, but coddled protection for these insiders on the public payroll and subsequently their ongoing efforts to protect others from global warming and keep their golden warming goose laying those eggs.

[JimBianchi11]

In the 1990s I was stationed at Tinker AFB in OKC. We had the largest fleet on NG vehicles in the US (1,100+ vehicles). They sucked.

Bad in the cold, bad acceleration, stalling, really poor milage, dangerous to refuel because the stuff was under very high pressure and the hose could really hurt you if it wasn’t connected correctly.

They only reason the AF did not ditch the whole program is that as part of the agreememnt to test these vehicles, the whole fleet got free fuel. So for 5 years Tinker had almost no fuel cost, except for a few hunderd unleaded and diesel vehicles.

In 1999 (my last year there) the agreement was up for renewal and the fuel was going to cost us nearly what gas does, when I left they were cutting the fleet WAY back because it just didn’t make sense to pay so much for a bad fuel.

[taildragger]

Propane/CNG/LPG are a big part of the solution, go ask T. Boone Pickens even though he has a horse in that race.

Imagine a "Chevy Volt" that runs exclusively on Gaseous Fuels that are filled at home via this device:

Just think of it, a Series Hybrid that is off the "Refinery" backlog. Lots of Nuke-Plants would help as well.

Now, if we can only get the fartknockers in the Sierra Club, the House, and Senate to let us drill for the 100+ years supply we have here in the U.S....

[NewJerseyJoe]

> Is the US ignoring a fuel alternative?

Yes. It's called oil. It can be found in many places, such as ANWR (Alaska), Colorado, northern Midwest, Gulf of Mexico, off Florida's Atlantic coast......