As gasoline prices rise members of the LSM look downward, shaking their heads and sigh "There really isn't anything Obama can do about high gas prices." Of course there was plenty that George Bush was expected to do and he got plenty of advice from Maxine Waters (socialize the oil companies) and FoxNews imbecile Bill O'Reilly. Why people call O'Reilly a conservative instead of a cabalist is anyone's guess but only Obama could do a worse job than O'Reilly on energy matters. In O'Reilly's world oil companies would put the interests of the public above those of their shareholders' until they went broke.
When the Republican candidates are asked what they would do I hope one of them has the good sense to say that the country should get serious about converting its automobiles to natural gas. Yes, drill baby drill, but as the critics of that strategy have been saying for years that it will take years to bring in a meaningful supply of domestic oil. Presently the country has a glut in natural gas that has caused the curtailment of natural gas drilling and the postponements of pipeline construction as I noted in this post. In another post I reported that Honda sells a natural gas powered car, the Civic Natural Gas with a sticker price of $26,155. In a third post I wrote that there was an interest in Louisiana in manufacturing a gas powered vehicle just to increase the demand for natural gas. So should the country include natural gas in its energy policy? Hell no. The country doesn't need an energy policy. It was doing just fine without one until 1973 and Carter's solution was worse than the short term shortage. Bear in mind the country built the entire interstate highway system without a single environmental impact statement and spent zero dollars on job training. Aside from the endemic inefficiencies of governmental policies energy is too important to ever trust to a power hungry Washington.
The Bush administration fell in love with the hydrogen powered car. Obama wanted the electric car. While someday both of these systems may have their day we already have a proven alternative to gasoline. By throwing out the EPA and DOT rules the country could be manufacturing fleets of clean burning natural gas powered automobiles. The beauty of this system is the automakers don't have to reinvent the wheel. Practically any vehicle manufactured today could be converted to run on natural gas tomorrow without major retooling. Then there is the question of natural gas filling stations. Should the government encourage the development of these as it did California's defunct hydrogen highway. No, no government help needed. The existing stations got there without the government and they have done just fine for nearly a century. A natural gas filling station needs a compressor and the fueling system cost about $750,000 but presently the natural gas industry is planning up to six natural gas export terminals and the cost billions each. Money will flow to its best use and the natural gas industry has plenty of money. It would happier to increase the demand for natural gas tomorrow instead of five years from now.
If you like your present car you can keep it
Currently it's pretty costly to convert a gasoline burning vehicle to a natural gas burner. Upgrades can cost $10,000 or more partly because the mechanic must be EPA certified. There is a YouTube video showing how a car can be converted for $,1000. A Santorum or Gingrich administration could relax or better yet just scrap this regulation. Once parts are in mass production and installation procedures are standardized any auto dealership could perform this upgrade. There are nationally franchised firms such as AMMCO who could also do it. I would almost bet money that one year after the rule change Walmart would be doing thousands of upgrades annually for $995. At a gasoline equivalent cost of around $2.00 per gallon, natural gas, with its a hundred year domestic reserve is a sure winner.
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