Whenever corn ethanol was being introduced I figured, wow this is amazing. If
we can harness the same amount of energy that Brazil is harnessing from
sugarcane then we should be turning Wichita Kansas into Abu Dhabi. Before too
long corn farmers would be as wealthy as oil sheiks. But as we found out that
corn ethanol is nowhere near as efficient as sugarcane ethanol, in fact our
government has spent billions in farm subsidies in order to try and boost the
production of corn ethanol. What makes you a little bit nauseous is that if that
money would’ve been spent giving auto manufacturers incentives to produce
compressed natural gas vehicles as well as building up an infrastructure of
compressed natural gas. This would be giving drivers for both commercial and
noncommercial uses the ability to refuel the vehicles at nearly every major gas
station. The government could have also offered incentives to gas stations in
order to entice the stations to place a compressed natural gas pumps at their
location. It would have a major impact being seen today instead of continuing on
a path of trying to save an inefficient fuel alternative.
Currently there are compressed natural gas kits available for vehicles
online. As we look at the kits that are available see that not that many items
are needed in order to convert your vehicle to a duel fuel vehicle. So if auto
manufacturers would design a small tank they could fit in a current vehicle then
that vehicle could have a range of say 40-50 miles on a tank of CNG which would
give commuters the ability to run entirely off of compressed natural gas during
the week and on long drives they could simply just switch over to conventional
gasoline. And with natural gas costing so much less the gallon gasoline savings
would certainly entice buyers to purchase CNG equipped vehicles.
For commercial uses, I would certainly be fitting my delivery vehicles with
compressed natural gas especially for companies like FedEx and UPS where the
vehicles have to pick up packages from the distribution center means they could
also have a compressed natural gas filling up the vehicles and with costs of
about one fourth that of gasoline means the companies would save a fortune in
the long-term.
It simply food for thought but I personally think that Americans would have
so much to gain with compressed natural gas as it would be supplied by us and
help save Americans thousands of dollars each year in fuel prices. If you have
anything you’d like to add then write to us in the comment section below.