Natural gas, is it our best alternative to foreign oil and how long will it last?
If you have been watching the news lately you know that the U.S. is now dependent on foreign oil sources like Iran, Saudi Arabia and others for at least 70% of its oil. There are all sorts of new technologies and alternative sources and ideas being offered from new drilling off the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas to increased ethanol production and even sources like hydrogen. T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire oil man from the 70’s and 80’s has proposed that we use a ready source that is made here in the USA for our automotive needs – natural gas.
Using natural gas would reduce the cost of driving and refueling greatly and, better yet, take control away or at least reduce the stranglehold that 3rd world countries like Iran, Venezuela and Nigeria have on our economy (besides many of these countries support terrorism and radical groups like Hammas and others). By using natural gas to power our cars we could bring back some peace to our world – everyone knows that without money terrorists and other similar groups have no real power. Right now the terrorist organizations are sitting awash in monies from Iran and other countries from the recent increases in the price of oil and gas.
Another reason natural gas would reduce prices is it doesn’t have to be transported half way around the world and under guard by the US navy (this costs more than you want to know). Natural gas comes from right here in the Gulf and southern states like Texas and Mississippi amongst others. And there is a much larger supply than there is for crude oil – many, many times larger – enough to last hundreds of years before it starts to run out! Many of us already use it in our homes for heating and cooking. It has been said that depending on where you are in the country (each state taxes natural gas differently) you would pay right now around $.60 to $1.00 per equivalent gallon amount of gas. That means to run your car just as far as you would with regular gas, which costs around $4.00 per gallon now, would literally cost an average of 80 cents. You could right now fill up your car for under 10 dollars! That is a huge savings! Who wouldn’t want to do that?
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Now, one has to keep in mind that the US states and fed do tax gas additional as a road use tax to pay for our highways and roads so it should be known that an increase in the use of natural gas for road use would also have a similar tax added to it. Currently this tax is no more than $.50 per gallon in the most expensive states (this is subject to change). So if you were to add that per gallon equivalent of natural gas you would at most be at $1.00 to $1.50. You could still fill up your car or truck at prices from back in 2000! That would greatly help many people whom are now finding it difficult to both put gas in their car and put food on the table.
Now there is one more issue with natural gas and that is that it is a gas and therefore takes up several times the space of gas. This requires the use of CNG or Compressed Natural Gas to fit better in our cars or trucks. Compressed natural gas requires a recharging unit that right now costs around $3,000 or so to hook up to your house gas lines directly. Another issue is the cost of converting your vehicle to run off CNG – right now conversion kits run around $800 to $1,000 and then you have to have them professionally installed (if you are mechanically inclined most can be done yourself). Then there’s the fact that in most states there are few stations if any that offer CNG. So you would have a very limited range.
Eventually if more of the country were to adopt the use of CNG costs for converting would drop and the number of stations that would offer it would increase. Another tremendous benefit is that by using CNG we would greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted. With this one change we could literally turn back the clock on global warming and breathe cleaner air! Natural gas is also far more plentiful than oil (oil reserves are already seen as dwindling and Saudi Arabia and others know this so they are heavily investing elsewhere so they have something else when the oil eventually runs out).
What can you do about this? Take the time to research CNG and other alternatives on the internet – just take a moment to Google the various keywords like natural gas, CNG, ethanol, gas alternatives, etc… The better educated everyone is on this the better choices we will make over time. Bad choices over the years by government have put us in this current oil and gas crisis. By being more knowledgeable we can make better choices and require our governmental elected officials to also make these same choices which will greatly benefit our economy and the environment.
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