Posted on 09/01/2012 6:38:40 AM PDT by Hojczyk
On Aug. 29 the biggest proponent of the NAT GAS Act, Mr. T. Boone Pickens, decided that some battles simply aren’t worth fighting any more.
T. Boone Pickens said natural gas vehicles can survive just fine without Congress approving his so-called Pickens Plan.
“It’s going to happen, and you don’t have to have Washington do it, thank God,” Pickens said at Wednesday’s energy luncheon hosted by POLITICO…
And Pickens strongly suggested that he doesn’t have any plans to try to push his plan anymore in the nation’s Capital.
“I will not go back to Washington again unless it’s for a social event,” he said.
He also took a moment to toss in a comment on his previous wind energy proposal.
The billionaire and former oil baron also lamented that while his plan initially promoted wind energy, that hasn’t worked out so well.
“I’ve lost my ass” to wind-energy investments, he conceded.
The American Conservative Union was popping champagne over this while the rest of us were whooping it up in Tampa.
American Conservative Union (ACU) today issued the following statement from ACU Chairman Al Cardenas:
“We are thrilled to hear that T. Boone Pickens has thrown in the towel on the NAT GAS Act. It was a classic example of the federal government attempting to pick winners and losers within an industry and that’s why the ACU fought so hard against this misguided policy. ACU will continue to monitor this legislation and will act swiftly to make sure that the NAT GAS Act does not go anywhere”
Many of the strongest supporters of natural gas exploration, including yours truly, have lined up against the NAT GAS Act. This doesn’t mean in any way shape or form that we oppose the exploration, development and use of natural gas. It’s a great, abundant energy source with a ton of potential for America.
But as always, government subsidies are not the answer to whatever problem some members of Congress think they’re trying to fix. This form of energy will succeed if it’s economical and competitive in the market. (And it certainly looks like it is.) We don’t need Uncle Sam’s thumb on the scale. Let’s hope this represents the closing chapter of this story.
It makes a lot of sense to me. I work in the oil/gas industry and I value the lives of my family.
If they allowed you to fill a tank in your home, you could migrate the gas to your car in minutes.
And just how do you think that magic would occur? Do you have a compressor of a couple thousand horsepower or do you already have the gas storage of thousands of pounds of pressure in your house?
Natural gas does not have to be refined,
It has too be processed. Wellhead natural gas contains many contaminants that have to be removed to become pipeline/consumer quality gas.
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/production.asp
Natural Gas is a good energy source, very cost effective but let us not pretend it is magic.
Very good info. Thanks!
“Natural gas does not have to be refined”, technically correct although usually NG requires cleaning up to remove all the other fluids and gasses that come out of the ground with methane.
The renewable landfill methane gas includes significant quantities of H2S and water moisture which require more cleaning than in-ground NG.
Many of us living rural do not have NG piped to us, maybe someday as its only about a mile up the road. 8 hour refill time overnight is no worse than a damn electric that’ll only go 40 miles.
Many of us rural folks are stuck with propane which price fluctuates significantly and is not unusually subject to local supplier gouging. Propane pricing runs up due to price of gasoline (used to boost octane), winter usage run-up and now the proposed use of propane for shale fracing fluid. Otherwise it would be practically equal to NG for transportation.
No one is saying its magic.
Engineers have told me there is no difference in safety between allowing a CNG tank in your car stored in your garage, and having a tank in your home. So if the government says it is safe enough to have in your car - where you drive around at high speeds on a highway, and then store it in your garage, it should be safe enough to put it underground and at a higher pressure. (Natural gas is safer than gasoline for driving!)
Compressors are expensive - but GE is now working on one for the home and they will bring the price way down. This is already happening.
Processing natural gas, is no where near the cost of refining oil, and no where near the environmental nightmare of building a refinery. To say those things are equivalent is totally wrong!
The concern is not the tank with no moving parts, but the compressor with a rotating seal.
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