10 Points to Consider in the Great Natural Gas Vehicle Debate

Fuel Fix ^ | July 12, 2013 | Matt Smith

[thackney]

[shove_it]

We sure are at the blunt end of this spear.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I wonder how one would play this from an investment point of view? Which companies stand to benefit most?

[Phillyred]

I wrote a paper on this 15 years ago. At that time buses in Philly were already running on it. It makes so much sense.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

My dog is a natural gas vehicle. Especially when I give him chicken.

[bert]

Not long ago, I took my van to be washed at the Flying J truckstop in Wytheville Virginia. You must thread your way through all the big rigs and a scale to get to the back of the lot and the truck wash.

I was astounded to find the path taken before was blocked. There was a brand new covered pump area. It is the Pilot Flying J/ T Boone Pickens big rig natural gas filling station. It was blocked off and not operational but appeared ready to go.

The success f failure of this experiment will be telling for the future.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I saw it for my self in western Canada around 1990 or so. They had the vehicles and they had the LNG in gas stations. Made a big impression on me as well.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If natural gas is cheap, viable energy alternative the misanthropic eco-nuts will find a way to stop it through a little "scientific" sleight-of-hand.

Their real goal is to wipe out five or six billion human beings, by whatever means necessary.

[Triple]

WPRT

[thackney]

Fleet service type vehicles, such as UPS, City Buses, Cement & Garbage Trucks, etc are the easiest to make this conversion.

Those vehicles typically come back to a single garage/yard where a fueling station can be built. A lot of this has already happened.

http://www.cngnow.com/news/default.aspx

[thackney]

America's Natural Gas Highway

http://www.cleanenergyfuels.com/buildingamerica.html

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

http://beta.fool.com/piyusharora/2013/07/10/how-to-play-the-booming-ngvs/39664/?source=eogyholnk0000001

These guys say prefer CMI to WPRT and give their reasons. Thanks for pointing me that way.

[chrisser]

I’ve looked into NG for vehicles a little.

I live in the city and work not too far outside it.

There is one natural gas filling station in the area, and by coincidence, it’s not too far from my house at the the local gas utility’s facility.

But there are two problems...

1) The gas filling station is not open to the public

2) The EPA has made it practically impossible to convert an existing vehicle to natural gas (or propane, for that matter) legally. Conversions have to be “certified” and tested, meaning they are very expensive and only available for a limited number of vehicles.

In the current environment, it’s only practical for fleet usage.

[shove_it]

The big buck$ have already been made ...

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=WPRT+Interactive#symbol=wprt;range=5y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;

WPRT has been a range bound trade for a couple years now..

[cdcdawg]

“According to the IEA, it can cost from $400,000 to $1.7 million to build a compressed-natural-gas filling station, and up to $4 million for a liquefied-natural-gas station. By comparison, a gasoline station costs from $50,000 to $150,000. “

I’m willing to bet that the $400,000 to $1.7M has a lot to do with compliance. We can develop technology in this country, but we cannot implement it. Also, I’m not sure how you could get a gas station built for $50,000. You might buy one for that in a rather depressed real estate market, but you would never build one for that. If I bought a gas station for $50K, I wonder how much would it cost to convert it? This is the wave of the future, and our policy makers are utterly blind to it.

[thackney]

Propane would not be much dollar savings.

Propane contains 92,500 BTUs per gallon.
Gasoline contains 125,000 BTUs per gallon.

So Propane at $2.59 per gallon delivers energy at the same price as gasoline at $3.50 per gallon.

[Noamie]

Is anyone beginning to get the feeling that the “Big Players” are starting the process to convince everyone to go Nat. Gas with the real purpose of rising prices and manipulating the market? I could see Obama pushing natural gas simply to kill off the oil industry, for example.

I like natural gas, and we have tons of it.

But I no longer trust anything on its face value.

(*Has anyone noticed that in every study [health, lifespan, &c] we come in basically last, yet we control the world and everyone wants to be here? LOL)

[shove_it]

Huh? Were you replying to me?

Maybe to chrisser @ #13?

[thackney]

Is anyone beginning to get the feeling that the “Big Players” are starting the process to convince everyone to go Nat. Gas with the real purpose of rising prices and manipulating the market? I could see Obama pushing natural gas simply to kill off the oil industry, for example.

No.

[thackney]

Yep, swing and a miss...