Picking on Pickens’ Plan

[Tax Counsel]

Somebody doesn't like our dear old T. Boone

http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/722

[wrenchmonkey]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

I love how Gore totally ignores that it's impossible to transition directly from gasoline to electricity.

So WHAT if electric cars are about to start to become available? With the average life-expectancy of a U.S. car being 16-18 years, and with no viable plug-ins even available on the market for another 1-2 years, we're looking at 20 years before we even come CLOSE to replacing all of the vehicles currently on the road.

And that's if we somehow magically made EVERY car sold for the next 20 years, a plug-in electric.

So what can we do for now? Well, virtually EVERY car that's currently on the road today, and the majority of the vehicles that are going to be sold for the next 10-20 years, can be retrofitted to CNG, RIGHT NOW.

There's no reason to wait 20 years. We could do it NOW.

Gore is a rock-star, because he runs around screaming that the sky is falling. If actual "solutions" are implemented, he kinda loses his job. Sorta like if scientists admit that Global Warming is a hoax.

"If you're a consultant, there's good money to be made in prolonging a problem."

[barit1]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

Recent news from MSNBC

I still see EPA bureaucracy as a HUGE obstacle. I think it's time to streamline their approval!

[jetboatjohnny]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

How many CNG stations could 58 million build?

[rocketmanpete]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

That is the problem,those @@@@@ in D.C. along with Gore do ignore the up front solutions. There must be at least 200 million cars and trucks on the road.I guess if we just twitch our nose long enough we can change them over night to plug ins.Our solutions bring a new meaning to the word's an act of congress. It is evident CNG is being stonewalled from different sides. It has been used long enough to be a proven alt. fuel. If a government agency is created,it must justify it's existence by maintaining that the problem exists. example- The department of welfare would cease to be if the government solved the problem,by putting people back to work. The IRS would cease to be if we went to a flat tax.Really how many people there read the 6400 page tax code book? I will quote the man "Big government is not the solution,big government is the problem" Hey I'm all for CNG,just get the idiot's in D.C.out of the way. How is the question

[Curtis]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

How many CNG stations could 58 million build?

50, give or take. CE style stations somewhere around $1 mill. They can be done for less under the right circumstances, but as long as it's public funds...

[ajgiorgi]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

The problem with converting is the price. That's why nobody converts. Plus stations are scarce and people don't want to pay an extra 4k for home units. In my opinion......

[mecklen]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

That's why using price per gallon as the motivator for CNG is a dicey proposition. If your only metric is price, your decision will be different tomorrow when the price changes (possibly through market manipulation).

CNG is a great idea because a) it is clean, b) it reduces our reliance on foreign energy sources. We all live in this world, we all want it to be beautiful, safe, and clean for ourselves and our children. These things don't change when the economy booms or tanks. And none of us wants an international conflict because we can't drive our cars.

I realize I'm in the minority, but these are ideas worth thinking about.

Cheers,

[jetboatjohnny]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

You Utah guys crack me up. You've been paying 63-84 cents a GGE so dont tell me the price of fuel has nothing to do with going to CNG. For me it was a no-brainer (620+ mile weekly commute) and I think if all the So CA commuters actually knew about NGVs there would be a lot more on the road.
For me it was the price of fuel AND the 36 mpg I get in my car AND the HOV access saves me a lot of time. I do care about making the world a better place. Now as for Pickens....we'll see

[Amfuel]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

There is proposed legilation in congress for a $90,000 credit for 20,000 fueling stations. They went on vacation before the campaigns started. Maybe next year.

[cowboy]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

curtis public funds? no thats my money! thats the problem everyone thinks the goverment has unlimited funds and we all end up paying for this thinking as we have to come up with this cash lets try free enterprise get the goverment outI have at least one person a day ask me to do a cng change over for them and I have to pass because the epa will not let anything inexpensuve on the market that one can justfy the cost they dont want change we the back bone of the usa could fix this if they left us alone I dont even think we need the tax breaks just no goverment trying to hold us back just my thoughts cowboy

[Andy-Paul]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

lets try free enterprise get the goverment out

Umm, did you ever see Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Although the whole cartoon thing was made up, the part about what happened to mass transit in LA (and a whole bunch of other places, I might add) is true.

Now: about getting the government out, why don't the oil companies pay more for exploratory leases, or at least for the minerals being extracted from public lands? Why do they get *STILL* get to write off all of their exploration, and why do *we* pay for the ports that bring in all the crude? Government off the backs of the people should also mean business off the back of the government, shouldn't it?

As for the EPA, they don't care about anything but air quality in this instance. I know that's hard for a lot of us out in the trenches to believe, but that is all the bureaucracy is about, and the source of all those patience-trying regulations.

Do their procedures need streamlining? Oh yes. But it's reflective of more of the same problem--to wit, if things were eased up a little on our level, some bunch of MBAs with the big automotive OEMs would find a way to turn the EPAs inch into a couple of light years so that none of us would be able to make a living, all CNG distribution and sales would be owned by Big Oil, and we'd be right back where we started from in 1973.
At least the people who are following Al Gore's suggestion are trying to do something to move us away from petroleum, let's give them credit for that. If they bring some electric cars and plug-in hybrids on the road by 2010 or 2011, it's still a good start because we need at least three different flavors of transport propulsion on the roads.

Patience, neighbors, this kind of paradigm shift will take generations to happen. Horses did not really disappear from the streets of most of the US until after WWII, roughly 45 years after the introduction of Ford's Model T.

Also, where did this 16-18 year life expectancy for a car come from? I really don't think it's that high here on the eastern seaboard. I would guess something closer to 10 or 12 years.

[TheBundo]

Re: Picking on Pickens’ Plan

Trying to convert all the existing cars is a ridiculous idea. It would be prohibitively exspensive, and then CNG prices and availability would make driving a gasser the cheap alternative