drgoodwrench

The Current Stagnation of Natural Gas Vehicles in America

Too bad you don't own an old Diesel Truck and wanted it converted to CNG, you could have had it done tomorrow and be completely legal in TN, which has no "Smog" check for such a vehicle.
An American Company,Omnitek (OMTK:OtcQX) based in California, the home of CARB, is the WORLD LEADER in diesel to natural gas engine conversion kit production and installation.
Recently they have formed an alliance with CARB to reduce the pollution from off-road diesel powered engines in the San Joaquin Basin, a federally designated "non-attainment area" for air cleanliness standards, which costs the State of California millions in lost federal funding.
Sempra Energy, the largest supplier of Natural Gas to California is also pitching in to make this work.
So while the Big 3, Big Government, and Big Oil may be working against bringing natural gas as an engine fuel to fruition, other key players ARE moving forward.

Combining the Pickens Plan and an Auto Bailout

I produce CNG conversion kits for all types of vehicles, and make a home refueling CNG unit like the fuelmaker unit. All these items are made in the USA, but ALL our sales are overseas because the regulatory morass here in the US prevents us from profitably making sales here. It is not a matter of consumer protection, or passing emission standards. It is a disorganized ,splintered regulatory system with CARB, EPA, AQMD, SCAQMD,DOT and DOE all having a say, but not one of them willing to be the leader. Total nightmare.
We put a conversion kit on a 2009 OEM Showcar in the OEM's booth at SEMA which caused a buzz among the press to see if this was really going to be an OEM option, and EPA threatened to fine us if we didn't pull it off the car! That's where there priorities are...keeping the status quo..

U.S. Venture Capital Moving from IT to Clean Energy

So who are these guys buying up Clean Techs?
As a director of the ONLY Heavy Duty (Diesel) CNG/LNG conversion Company to turn a profit this year, we can't get any VC funding without giving away the company. Using VC interest as a measuring stick of the potential of a given "space", without considering what these companies give away in return for the capitol, is fool hardy. What it shows is the willingness at this time for Clean Tech Entrepenuers to give away their technology to Vulture Capitolists.
Thank goodness "regular" investors have stepped in and bought shares of our Company when we needed a capitol infusion, Yes, we could be doing a lot more, much quicker if we were heavily capitolized by the VC crowd, but then we'd be working for someone forcing us to ship our jobs overseas and to manufacturer a cheaper product... Not worth it.

U.S. Automakers Can't Afford to Overlook Natural Gas Opportunities

We build and sell home refueling units for CNG, conversion kits for cars and trucks to be Bi-fuel, and make new natural gas heavy duty engines (diesel conversions). ALL our sales are overseas because CARB can't figure out how to effectively deal with certification of conversions, and EPA follows CARB's lead. In general, to sell a kit in the USA, it has to be certified by CARB at a cost of $200k-400k. However the certification is good ONLY for a specific model year of a vehicle in a specific trim. So to make kits available for 1993 Mazda Miatas, we are looking at 2 certifications. To cover 1990-1993, we are looking at 6 certifications, potentially 2.4 million dollars. We could never sell enough kits to cover our costs.
How much is a kit? EPA/CARB Certified conversions are $20k from BayCorp. Our conversions for the same applications overseas are $2k, including installation! CARB has effectively blocked any chance of a conversion market developing in the USA.