I suppose it's a personal thing, but I find most television commercials insufferable. Some are OK, perhaps even moderately entertaining, but they clearly are in the minority.
Maybe that's why I want to take a moment of your time to talk about the television and print series that features Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of ultrasuccessful natural gas producer Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK). His message, both on the tube and in a Tuesday full-page Wall Street Journal ad, involves the desirability of dramatically increasing the percentage of our vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG).
Self-serving? Perhaps somewhat. After all, McClendon does run the company that's just becoming our nation's top natural gas producer. But his is also a message that, with almost 70% of our crude oil being imported -- much of it from places where we're not high on the popularity charts -- tends to resonate. Add to that the reality that our domestic natural gas reserves are growing, and that it is far cleaner than burning gasoline, and his contention becomes even more compelling.
So why are we -- as energy investor T. Boone Pickens points out in a related commercial -- falling behind places like Iran in the use of CNG vehicles? One key answer (along with associated costs and time requirements) is that, as McClendon tells us, our auto companies generally aren't making natural gas-burning cars available to us. Sure, Honda markets a CNG-ready Civic here, but while General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F), and Daimler (NYSE: DAI) sell such vehicles overseas, they're not inclined to do so in the U.S.
That, I suppose, is yet another reason to tune out the automakers when they, like just about everyone else these days, request financial assistance as they endeavor to retool for the production of smaller vehicles and to otherwise deal with their plummeting sales. Imagine, if you will, a world full of CNG, plug-in electric, and fuel cell-powered cars. But if we wait for Detroit to make any or all of these power systems available in ample numbers, it just might be our children's grandchildren who are the beneficiaries.
For now, however, as McClendon makes clear, his company, along with the likes of BP (NYSE: BP) and Anadarko (NYSE: APC), is ready to help us gas up and get going.
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