Bruce Pile

11 Months After the Oil Bubble Burst

Old Trader, you're right about NG being a no brainer from an ecological standpoint. The energy crisis we face is all about timing and EROEI. The energy sources are all there - solar, wind, future ethanols that will work, and our remaining fossil allotment. The problem is that some of the nonfossil alternatives will never have the EROEI to effectively supply the world's energy and will take many years to scale up to what is needed for oil replacement. The other stuff that will have the needed EROEI will also take too long - we will face the net energy cliff edge before they are scaled up to what is needed (see my Instablog post "The Alternative Energy No One Is Thinking About"). That leaves natural gas as the critical bridge fuel to get us from the cliff's edge to the other side where we will have high EROEI non fossil fuels scaled up and economical.

But even if you did not even consider all the net energy situation (which no one is considering anyway) NG, in addition to being the most energy dense and highest EROEI energy source, is also the quickest and cheapest way to cut all forms of pollution!

Pollutant NG Oil Coal
CO2 117,000 164,000 208,000
Carbon Monoxide 40 33 208
Nitrogen Oxides 92 448 457
Sulfur Dioxide 1 1122 2591
Particulates 7 84 2744
Mercury 0 0.007 0.016

Source: EIA - Natural Gas Issues and Trends, 1998

And also from the DOE, they estimate that 50 % of all air pollution comes from our cars and trucks (80% in cities). They say that an immediate switch to NG powered vehicles would:

cut CO2 by 25%
cut NOx by 35% - 60%
cut carbon monoxide by 90% - 97%
cut other nonmethane hydrocarbon emissions by 50%-75%

And we have the technology already developed to do this! You can switch your vehicle over with a trip to the mechanic and about a $1500 bill. They commonly do this in many other nations. Considering that NG engines run so much cleaner that the oil stays pure and engines last 2 and 3 times as long, that switchover bill pays for itself many times over.

What other government programs looking at putting windmills on cars soaking up billions of our tax payer dollars would immediately cut pollution by the percentages above?

But they ignore the Pickens Plan and would rather fill the air with unnecessary pollution from our current imported oil burning while they work on worthless, low EROEI technologies of tomorrow.