If you don’t follow business news like I do, then you might
not have heard that T Boone Pickens is once again dabbling in alternative
energy. This time he’s tuned in and
turned on to natural gas.
Mr. Pickens, who made most of his vast fortune in oil, is a
convert to green technology. He has
invested big time in wind power, and at one time had plans to build a humongous
wind-generating farm in the Texas Panhandle.
He had some setbacks, so those plans have since been put on hold,
although they aren’t exactly dead.
CNBC had Pickens on as a guest recently, and he was waxing
large on the benefits of converting our huge trucking industry from diesel, a
high pollutant fuel, to natural gas, or more specifically liquid propane gas
(LPG).
At one point in the interview, Mr. Pickens proclaimed that
one unit of LPG – I believe he referred to it as a cubic foot, but I may be
wrong in that – would have the same cost as seven gallons of diesel fuel, but
would produce practically zero greenhouse gas.
He also stated that the power and efficiency of an 18-wheeler powered by
LPG would be equal to that of the current diesel powered vehicles.
Aside from the lower pollution and the lower cost of LPG
compared to diesel, the real benefit would be that we have a huge amount of
natural gas under our own soil, so we could quit importing so much petroleum
from the Middle East, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Venezuela and Brazil.
As to the cost of conversion from diesel power plants to LPG
engines, there are two ways to do this.
The existing diesel engines could be converted, but it would be at the
cost of down time for the vehicle, possibly up to ten days, during which time
the driver would be off the road and out of work. Alternately, the engine could be removed and replaced with a new
one. That would likely take two days, but the cost would obviously be greater
than the cost of conversion.
For once in my life, I’m in favor of green technology. Not because it will prevent global warming or
cause less pollution, though I must admit that I hate driving behind a semi and
getting the fumes from the exhaust. No,
the reason I favor the conversion process is that at least we would be using
our own resources and lessening our dependence on those foreign sources from
people who hate us. Well, maybe Canadians don’t hate us, but the rest all seem
to.
Remember way back in the 1970s when the Department of Energy
was first formed? Our goal was to
“lessen our dependence on foreign sources of energy.” A couple of trillion dollars and forty years
later we are more dependent on foreign energy than we were back then. This
despite the fact that we probably have more petroleum here in the United States
than there is in the rest of the world combined. We just cannot drill for it due to all the regulations and
environmental prohibitions.
I certainly hope that we can get the natural gas we hold
without interference. Maybe T. Boone
Pickens has the right idea this time.
He certainly wasted a lot of tome and money on the wind power. I’m for
anything that will keep OPEC out of our pockets.
While we’re at it, I also hope we can quit subsidizing and
using that foul additive in our gasoline, ethanol. There used to be a message on the email circuit about the effects
of hot-burning ethanol on our engines, but that has been pulled, since
virtually all gasoline today has at least 10% ethanol in it. I suspect the same ill effects on engine
wear and engine life is there, but we just can’t talk about it anymore.
Was the original message incorrect, did the auto industry
somehow solve the problem, or did we just stop worrying about the wear and tear
on engines? I don’t know, but I cannot
locate anything on it even at Snopes.
That is interesting in itself.
I did hear something on the Kudlow Report on CNBC
recently that referred to the new 15% mandate for ethanol content in our
gasoline. It seems that most all of the
auto manufacturers objected to it, stating almost universally that it would
harm engines, burn too hot and wear out engine parts too rapidly. It seems that the one-and-only supporter of
the 15% ethanol mix was General Motors.
Does it strike you as it does me that General Motors is also given the
pseudonym, “Government Motors”?
Part 2 on this topic will be coming soon, so watch for
it. If my test next month turns up what
I think it will, you might have a new way to save on fuel and it doesn’t
involve LPG or engine conversions.
