The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 634
Other than Dodge having announced production of a hybrid CNG-gasoline Ram
pickup truck and a very small run of CNG vans that GM built under special order
last year that’s it in the way of CNG vehicles. There was a time 10+ years ago
when Ford, Chrysler and GM were building several CNG models, but that was
just really for show to get carbon credits and other brown-nosing points from
Congress.
Consequently, if the oil industry went ahead with fracking and the U.S. produced
all this CNG, what would we do with it? CNG and natural gas is already used in
millions and millions of American homes for heating, and there’s no gas shortage to be overcome. The new home market has been dead for a few years and
it’s just barely breathing now.
There’s no talk of any great spurt in CNG filling stations, so even if there were
more CNG cars produced there would be a fueling station availability problem.
We do have a couple hundred million passenger vehicles on the road that could
be converted, but aftermarket engine conversion is terribly expensive (roughly
$10,000) and limited to just a few models. The cost and the restrictions are
because of EPA regulations. The funny part is that these regulations exist due
to oil lobbying to make it difficult for vehicle owners to convert from gasoline. So
while the oil industry is up-in-arms against the EPA for the E15 waiver, they
were thrilled with the EPA action on CNG conversions. To make matters worse,
if you live in California and you have the money and the right model vehicle,
California Air Resources Board (CARB) won’t allow you to make the conversion.
If you buy a CNG-converted vehicle outside of the state and bring it into California CARB won’t allow you to register it.
So again, what would we do with all the natural gas and CNG from all the new
fracking?
Ah, the oil industry lackeys say, “We’ll export it and make a profit.” Okay, but
who are they going to export it to? Canada doesn’t need it. Mexico doesn’t need
it. Venezuela and its friends down south don’t need it. Brazil doesn’t need it.
China and Russia have their own vast supplies of natural gas, and Russia has
oil, too. So then where, Western Europe? Why buy the U.S. gas; Israel (and
Lebanon and Cyprus by proximity) discovered huge natural gas reserves and
has already started bringing the gas up. It’s cheaper for Western Europe to
import the gas from Israel or Lebanon or Cyprus.
In short, there’s no market for an increased supply of American natural gas and
CNG. All that will happen is that the government will give billions to the oil