U.S. News & World Report magazine has a section in its current issue looking at various fuel sources from coal to fusion. For each fuel they start with a “claim” and then follow it up with “the reality.”
In the natural gas segment, the writer bemoans the lack of natural gas fueling stations for automobiles, which is not what The Pickens Plan contemplates.
The article, as every member of the New Energy Army knows, misses the point which is that Boone has said right from the earliest days of The Pickens Plan “I don’t want your family car; I want the heavy trucks.”
Saying that Boone and Harry Reid have an initiative to invest in fueling stations shows a lack of study by the writer into just what the NAT GAS Act is all about. In interview after interview, Boone has pointed out that the NAT GAS Act is designed to jump start the natural gas vehicle (NGV) industry in the U.S. by providing tax incentives to fleet owners to convert their vehicles from gasoline or diesel to natural gas.
Fleets, such as taxis, municipal vehicles, express delivery trucks, municipal and school buses; as well as refuse and recycling trucks all go home to the barn every night so having a refueling stop on every corner is not an issue. Heavy over-the-road trucks tend to run the same routes on a regular schedule so drivers stop at the same places to rest, eat and refuel so the need for natural gas refueling stops at known points along Interstate highways would be filled by private enterprise.
Good that US News & World Report had a section on Claims and Realities of various fuels, but we wish they would have done a little homework on the natural gas portion.
— The Pickens Team