My modern-day mentor, T. Boone Pickens hates the fact that we use up so much
damn oil and resources and wants to put a stop to it. Well at least curb it and
make us energy independent. The fact of the matter is that we keep seeing news
that America is completely full of natural gas, so much that it’s now just being
used as a practical joke for making peoples offices smell like farts. With so
much natural gas you’d think that companies would be beside themselves trying to
switch their vehicles to run off of this perfectly fine and even cleaner burning
abundant fossil fuel.
- Abundant
- Inexpensive
- Clean Burning
- Retrieved in America
- Keeps money circulating throughout US
- Employs American workers
- Gasoline cars can run off it with a conversion
So as you can see, it seems preposterous that we are lagging so far behind in
developing ways to bring natural gas to the masses and commercial applications.
Thanks to proponents of the fuel such as Mr. Pickens we might hopefully see an
infrastructure being produced they can support consumer and commercial
needs.
Even our neighbors to the north are working to develop ways to run their
18-wheelers off of liquid natural gas. Liquid natural gas takes a little more
effort than compressed natural gas as it has to be chilled to -162°C before it’s
pumped into a fuel tank. But companies such as Shell are looking to manufacture
a liquid natural gas plant and dispense the fuel through Flying J gas stations
therefore building up an infrastructure for commercial vehicles. For commercial
vehicles such as 18-wheelers, the owners of these vehicles have estimated a 22%
savings on fuel which would be somewhere around $120-$150 per tank which would
certainly cause a difference in the price of shipping goods around the country
and could lower prices on nearly all goods that have to be shipped. Now if the
United States would work on developing its own infrastructure for liquid and
compressed natural gas we could see gas stations such as Flying J and Love’s
selling the fuel and helping bring more individuals and businesses to the
benefits of natural gas.
