In an editorial on Sunday, the Tulsa World lamented America’s lack of a national energy plan. But it also held out hope … for a bill that has already been introduced in the House of Representatives by Oklahoma’s John Sullivan, H.R. 1380.
There is, however, one good idea that has been in Congress for two years that just might finally have the votes to pass. The NAT GAS Act looks to have the votes in the House and Senate to be approved. President Barack Obama has indicated that he will sign the bill if it gets to his desk.
The bill, authored by First District U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, is supported by T. Boone Pickens, a devoted proponent of using compressed natural gas to fuel vehicles. The benefits of CNG are well-known and indisputable.
The World did the math, and the conclusions were self-evident:
Not to pursue developing CNG for vehicles would be foolish. There are about 2,543 trillion cubic feet (that’s trillion with a “t”) of recoverable natural gas in the United States, according to the 2011 energy outlook by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. And there might be even more than that. Oklahoma sits atop vast natural gas deposits and companies in this state have the technology and experience to get it out of the ground.
The World also pointed out that H.R. 1380 will address the key issue driving candidates in the 2012 presidential election, namely, jobs.
Sullivan says, and I know that politicians have a tendency to embellish predictions, that this bill could generate 500,000 jobs nationwide. Even if he is off by half that, it’s still a lot of good-paying jobs.
Read the entire editorial HERE.