The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[Democritus_of_Abdera]

Re: Tillerson’s dismissal of CNG-powered transportation...

I suspect that his comments were made in the context of the North American market (and, perhaps, directed to an expectation of an upcoming Natural Gas Act debate in congress). The following three arguments were made per #msg-47804827.

1) “natural gas is not a dense enough fuel to use in most cars and trucks”

This statement is true if you are considering the current North American vehicle fleet which has engines designed for use with gasoline only.... however, there are readily available conversion kits that allow a car to be run on both CNG/LNG and gasoline. These cars are popular in other parts of the world (notably Italy). ... I personally don’t think that the density of the fuel is a critical variable with respect to adoption of the technology, largely because compression technology is readily available.

2) natural gas... “would require significant investments in infrastructure to distribute”...

This is the most important argument (and the argument that proponents of CNG turn around to support congressional action; the rationale being that cng-powered vehicles contribute to energy independence (or at least choice) and reduced emissions)....

3) “and that it would take more time to fill up each vehicle”

This is a new argument for me (it applies to electric cars as well)... However, I would counter that the technology exists to fill a car at home while the vehicle is in the garage (using a natural gas line that many have to service their heating needs; see:

). .... In some respects, this is more convenient than driving to a gasoline station... It also raises the interesting problem of taxes... Politically, it would be more difficult (IMO) to raise taxes on a fuel used for heat than one used for solely for transportation. It would be difficult (although not impossible) to distinguish between the uses of the cng derived from the home natural gas line.

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Tillerson also purportedly states (I can’t confirm the quote in the link provided in the iHub msg) that he can’t make the math work on why anybody would do that... Ultimately, the math comes from the price differential between gasoline and cng at the pump. This has two components, the cost of production and the tax treatment. Currently, the math does not work in North America ... but, I’m open to the idea that gasoline production costs might rise faster than cng costs over the next ten years and that tax treatments of the two fuels might differ in cng’s favor.