carbonates

Testing Plug-In Hybrids: What the Results Mean

Tata's Nano isn't street legal in the U.S., especially not California! The Nano is nowhere near meeting U.S. safety standards, and won't even meet U.S. emissions requirements. Perhaps people don't realize how restricted the US auto manufacturers are by regulations. By the time the Nano is made to conform to U.S. regulations it will likely cost 10 times more and get half as much mileage.

The real problem with these battery powered cars is that the natural resources to build large numbers of lithium ion batteries do not exist (at least not until the price of lithium starts approaching the value of gold or platinum). The entire battery grade output of one of the major lithium producers (there are only a few) will be needed to build only a few hundred thousand cars per year. The electronics industry already consumes most of the supply. Until a realistic battery solution that relies on materials that are actually available exists, this has only a small-scale potential and will be limited to the high-end market.

Of course, for about $1,000 conversion, and another $2,000 to $3,000 for a home fueling station I can convert a street legal vehicle to natural gas and fuel it up at home from my natural gas line, improving my mileage, reducing my emissions, and saving money. Actually, I can buy CNG vehicles fairly cheaply already on the used car market.

Book Review: Robert Hefner's 'The Grand Energy Transition'

Natural gas is currently suffering from being categorized along with oil by policy makers and consumers. The two fuels vary dramatically in supply, marketing, and consequences of consumption. We do have a hundred year supply of natural gas, even if consumption rises, due to changes in drilling technology and geologic paradigm shifts that are currently being adapted in the natural gas industry.

Currently natural gas is the only fuel that can be used to quickly supply electric power when demand rises unexpectedly. Wind power, solar, nuclear, hydroelectric, and even coal cannot do that as quickly as natural gas. Currently natural gas is the cheapest source of hydrogen. In effect, burning natural gas IS burning hydrogen as most of the energy comes from the 4 hydrogen bonds.

There is no reason that natural gas cannot be used to substitute for transportation fuel (gasoline and diesel), yet wind and solar cannot do that with any efficiency. I converted my vehicle to natural gas in 1974. Large fleets of buses and garbage trucks in my area have been converted for years.

The real problem for natural gas is that the current administration is throwing the baby out with the bath water, by limiting natural gas production and doing nothing to improve natural gas distribution systems. Currently the natural gas industry is facing higher taxes, serious restrictions on technology applications, revocation of Federal leases, increasing royalties and severance taxes at both federal and state levels, and a supply glut that is forcing most producers to stop drilling and cancel programs that would have been our supply several years from now. Boom and bust, while decried by Obama, seems to be the real result of his administrations policies for the natural gas industry. Maybe Al Gore (who was once a proponent of natural gas) needs to read this book so that maybe the Whitehouse will get the message.