By Paolo von Schirach
February 22, 2013
WASHINGTON – T. Boone Pickens keeps pushing forward his plan to convert American vehicles to US produced (inexpensive and cleaner) natural gas. His purpose is to help the US economy by promoting the use of a now abundant US resource, while lessening US dependence on oil; as oil prices, unlike domestic natural gas, are still determined by the OPEC cartel, no matter how much more oil America is getting now from North Dakota.
Use US natural gas to avoid OPEC controlled oil
In other words, we determine our own (very low) price of gas. OPEC still controls oil prices. Hence the advantage in economic, geo-political and environmental terms of choosing US produced natural gas as transportation fuel. Gas is plentiful, domestic, cheaper and cleaner than gasoline or diesel.
In Pickens’ own words:
“This morning [February 21] I also co-hosted a SquawkBox on CNBC where we talked about our nation’s dependence on foreign oil and how the U.S. can fuel domestic energy production.
Key points of the interview:
— Despite great strides in domestic energy production, U.S. consumers are seeing no relief in gasoline prices because oil is a global commodity and Saudi Arabia is the swing producer.
— OPEC is a cartel, and the best way to break the cartel and address rising fuel costs is to inject competing transportation fuels into the mix.
— Taking advantage of our expanding supplies of natural gas, particularly in the heavy duty truck and fleet market, is the most realistic way to solve the national security and economic threat tied to OPEC oil/diesel/gasoline.”
There is long road ahead before we convert our vehicles, beginning with heavy trucks, to natural gas, but it well worth the effort.