John Petersen

Why Is Congress Agnostic About Natural Gas?

The biggest problem NG faces is that nobody understands that it's different from its traditionally more important sister oil. My back of the napkin performance figures for a CNG HEV are stunning. The darned thing would be within 10% of an EV in terms of CO2 emissions and at least 25% cheaper to buy. When you factor in the reality that all of the fuel revenue would stay in North America instead of going elsewhere the logic is undeniable. I find it particularly curious that Toyota and Honda seem to be stepping away from the plug-in circus and taking a hard look at natural gas.

China Repeats U.S. Energy Policy Mistakes

Fitz, I have a new article coming out today (I hope) that does a 10-year roll forward of gasoline prices based on an assumption that the 17.5% annual rate of increase we had for the last decade will continue for the next decade. You'll be appalled to know that if prices continue to increase at historical rates, we can look forward to $5.60 gasoline by 2014 and $12.54 gasoline by 2019. The old line from WW-II was there are no atheists in foxholes. The same concept should apply much more quickly to CNG agnostics.

How Natural Gas Can Save the U.S. Economy

I've been at least tangentially involved in the oil and gas business since I graduated law school and for most of that time NG maintained a fairly constant 6:1 price parity with oil that only gave a slight edge to oil based on the relative ease of transporting it. With the current disparity between NG prices and oil prices, it's a fairly safe bet that all industrial users who can switch have already done so. This really is beginning to look like a fundamental disconnect between NG prices and oil prices that strongly militates in favor of moving a big chunk of the transportation burden to NG, and if we want to take it a step further NG-HEVs like the Camry.

Another Look at Geothermal Energy

Overall, the thermal potential locked in the earth is enough to make available solar power pale in comparison. If we could ever get the oil and alternative energy industries working together in concert and sharing knowledge, we would find that most of the technology needed for a rapid ramp-up in geothermal power production already exists. Given its depth of experience in drilling very deep wells in the U.S., I would not be the least bit surprised to Chevron become a first tier player.

Market for Electric Vehicle Batteries Is Heating Up

Now all we need is a clear answer to global lithium supply questions.

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