The Next Hybrid Vehicle

• Report this Comment On October 15, 2011, at 3:10 AM, liveoilfree wrote:

  This is such a stupid article, sloppy journalism. There are already fleets of CNG vehicles, some in the hands of private parties; Ford and GM already make CNG vans and CNG trucks.

  The hidden fact that this "journalist" fails to understand is that the big money is in OIL. Big Oil doesn't want CNG vehicles; the idea of "dual fuel" is bogus. There are already Chevrolet vehicles on the road that run either on CNG or gasoline; the problem is that Big Oil won't let CNG fueling stations be built except for fleet usage.

• Report this Comment On October 15, 2011, at 4:45 AM, JackCaps wrote:

  There are engineering issues that constrain CNG vehicles versus liquid petro vehicles. CNG requires a pressurized tanks and more volume to provide the same effective range as a vehicle. This adds to the cost of producing such vehicles, but the lower cost per mile of CNG vehicles will draw interest to this option.

  Per liveoilfree's "Big Oil" conspiracy theory against CNG vehicles, I suggest that you examine the AboutNaturalGas.com web site sponsored by the "Big Oil" corporation of Exxon Mobil. Why would Exxon Mobil promote natural gas? Perhaps it's because natural gas comes out of some of the holes that they drill into the ground. Natural gas is just another energy resource that they provide in addition to oil.

• Report this Comment On October 17, 2011, at 11:32 AM, mjtri wrote:

  Don't blame Big Oil on not having natural gas stations. For instance, Exxon is no longer just an oil company. They are a huge natural gas company as well.

• Report this Comment On October 21, 2011, at 4:04 PM, kmacattack wrote:

  The author is behind the times. The national infrastructure to support CNG vehicles nationwide is being built, and in a hurry. Thanks to Sen. Mitch McConnell, we have no energy bill.

  The house of representatives passed the American Power Act with about 290 votes "for" two years ago. MCConnell used every available tactic to delay the vote in the Senate, despite the fact that a Gallop poll taken last summer revealed that 85 percent of Americans wanted the bill passed. The bill contained funding to help build CNG fuel stations on all the major highways in the country, tax credits for converting trucks to CNG from diesel, etc. Before the bill came to a vote, McConnell received a "campaign contribution" from the oil lobby of almost $500,000, and another $50,00 from the very powerful coal lobby, and both industries hated, and feared, natural gas. AFTER the APA passed the House, EXXON purchased XTO, the largest natural gas producer in the country as a "HEDGE" However, neither Exxon, or big oil wants CNG developed because it will mean the end of Big Oil's monopoly of transportation fuels. Last Year, Exxon made $50 BILLION NET PROFIT, and very little of that profit came from Natural Gas for a couple of reasons. NG prices are currently about $3.75 per mcf, which is below production cost for many companies, due to a huge glut of NG on the market. There is a new CNG station opening this weekend locally in town, and they are selling CNG fuel for $0.79 per gallon equivalent but that may be a "promotional price", The fuel has been selling for abiut $1.29 versus $3.49 for 87 Unleaded, and about $3.69 for diesel fuel. The chairman of Exxon admitted about a month ago on "Meet the Press" that oil and gas prices were being manipulated upwards by "at least 40 percent". In other words, without manipulation, gasoline should be selling currently for about $2.00 per gallon. A barrel of Saudi Oil's "lifted cost" is about $2.50 per barrel, yet it sells for about $86.00 and when it was $150.00 in 2008, still cost about $2.50 lifted in Saudi Arabia. The statement "don't blame big oil" is absurd, because Big Oil nearly drove the US and most of the world into a depression 3 years ago with $5.50 per gallon gasoline. I BLAME BIG OIL. BIG OIL IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN A VERY CORRUPT MONOPOLY. They killed the electric car about 12 years ago when they bought an entire fleet of vehicles which were being tested in CA and crushed them. About the same time GM had a hydrogen powered vehicle working prototype and they asked the Big oil companies if they would support the technology by installing hydrogen pumps at their retail outlets (part of the vertical monopoly they enjoy) at stations nationwide. Big oil said "HELL no"! They kicked in about $1BILLION in 10 years in "campaign contributions" nationwide (85 percent to republicans) and when gasoline escalated from $0.79 in the spring of 2000 to $4.00 by 2006, nobody in congress was willing to investigate "why". We were told, for instance in 2000, when prices doubled before the Bush Gore election that there were "shortages". My then next door neighbor was a senior accountant for a refinery. I aksed him about the "shortages" and he almost fell over laughing. He told me "Mac, every tank farm in the country is full. We have no place to put it. We have ships sitting in the gulf waiting to dock at Houston because all the storage is full." But, the price doubled, which angered voters at then Vice President Gore, who then voted for oilmen Bush and Cheney, thinking that the change in administration would bring "outrageous $2.00 per gallon gas" prices back down to $1.00 or so. VP Cheney invited big oil execs to a secret meeting at Camp David where they were allowed to write the Bush administration's energy policy. Included in the policy was a provision which would cap liability on oil spills to a maximum of $75 million which oil companies would pay, and any excess would be picked up by American taxpayers. This policy was still in place last year when the BP Horizon blew out in the gulf. When Obama told BP "You are going to have to pay for this" , the republican leaders (who all receive significant "contributions" from Big oil, all went on Television and cried "foul", saying it was "unfair" to ask an oil company to pay for a spill, and it should be paid for out of the treasury. Sounds crazy? Look it up and read the text. It's probably on You tube also. BP chair Tony Haywood was summoned to Washington to meet with Obama, where he agreed to escrow, for starters $20 BILLION to pay for cleanup costs. Shortly after that Hayward was forced out at BP. I suspect that BP was threatened with having their bank accounts frozen and their US assets confiscated if they didn't agree, but I've never seen that in print. Conservative talk show hosts were saying that Hayward was probably losing a $30 million per year job, about par for a US major corporation. It was then discovered that Hayward was making $1.5 million per year, which is the maximum allowed for any company's CEO on the British stock exchange. British government socialism? No, this rule is enforced by the stock exchange itself, because they believe that $1.5 million, the equivelant of about 30 employees pay, both rewards the CEO for his expertise, while protecting the shareholders of the company from being robbed by crooked CEO's and boards of directors, which is the case in the US "steal all you can get away with" model.

  CNG burns so much cleaner that big gas producers such as Chesapeake, Devon, and Sandridge were in favor of "cap and trade" carrot and stick legislation. CNG produces 1/4 the poison gas CO2 of diesel, plus doesn't contain sulfur like diesel and coal. It's 100 % American made. Converting the trucking fleet to CNG would eliminate about 50 percent of OPEC oil imports within 5 years, and save Americans $300 billion per year that we are sending directly to OPEC. Talk about a STIMULUS? $300 BILLION IN EXTRA DISPOSABLE INCOME would be a huge boost to the economy. Half our trade deficits are the result of imported oil. Our military, economic, and diplomatic security would be strengthened greatly if we reduce oil imports. We could create about 1 million high paying jobs, many of them in manufacturing, by converting to CNG for the trucking industry. Oil companies will be forced to drop prices, because, for the first time in history, they will have competition in the transportation fuel business. If the prices don't drop, they run the risk of losing the entire retail transportation market. You can buy a compressor for home use and make your own CNG. If gasoline stays near $4 per gallon, anyone driving 20,000 miles per year or more might switch to CNG cars, since the fuel cost is normally about 1/3 the price. CNG operated trucks would mean cleaner air in the nations major cities, some of which have 100,000 trucks running on a given day.

  Iran exports a huge amount of oil, but they run their vehicles primarily on natural gas, because it makes much more economic sense, they put far more money in the nation's treasury by selling high priced oil elsewhere. Is our government not as smart as the government in IRAN?

  Big oil wants to keep us DEPENDENT ON FOREIGN OIL, AND IF NOT FOREIGN OIL, THEN "DRILL BABY DRILL" domestic produced. Why? They have a MONOPOLY with no competition. Exxon's purchase of XTO was, as I said, a hedge. When Ted Kennedy died and was replaced by republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the democrats lost the 60th vote which would override a Mitch McConnell filibuster to pass the energy bill. He has now filibustered about 400 bills, mostly for the benefit of corporations and to the detriment of the American public. The latest example was about 3 days ago when a 53 vote majority in the senate FOR THE JOBS BILL was defeated by ONE VOTE, McConnel's filibuster.

  The Koch brothers are Big oil's partner in crime and they stand to lose BILLIONS of dollars every year if Gasoline and Diesel are forced to compete, because they own huge refineries which won't be needed for CNG. The Koch's pay for fake science which tries to spread the myth that there is no global warming, and that CO2 is harmless (you know, the CO2 poison gas which nearly killed the crew of astronauts in the TRUE story Apollo 13.) All the pictures you have seen about the polar ice caps melting, Iceburgs in New Zealand from Antarctica, etc. are "illusions". The Koch's will do anything for money. They even own offshore gambling casinos and prostitution operations, which help funnel money to their WATER BOY politicians. The gambling operation led to Jack Abramoff, and a congressman who he bribed in behalf of the Koch's going to prison. They were trying to have offshore internet gambling legalized. When that didn't work, they tried a new approach to get control of politicians with the "Citizens United" case in the corrupt Supreme Court last year. Clarence Thomas and

  Antonin Scalia were "guests" of one of the Koch's billionaires summits on a weekend when the "topic of discussion" was how best to argue the Citizens United case before the Supreme Court. Thomas and Scalia returned to Washington, and when the time came, voted for the Koch's lawsuit.

  Don't BLAME BIG OIL? GIVE ME A BREAK!

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