| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/26/2008 10:28:23 AM | .
Is this the Next fuel???
How much natural Gas does Exxon own??
Natural-gas vehicles hot in Utah, where the fuel is cheap
By PAUL FOY, AP Business Writer
Fri Apr 25, 3:06 AM ET
Troy Anderson was at the gas pump and couldn't have been happier, filling up at a rate of $5 per tank.
Anderson was paying 63.8 cents per gallon equivalent for compressed natural gas, making Utah a hot market for vehicles that run on the fuel.
It's the country's cheapest rate for compressed gas, according to the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, and far less than the $3.56 national average price for a gallon of gasoline.
"I'm totally celebrating," crowed Anderson, a 44-year-old social worker, who picked up a used Honda Civic GX two months ago. "This is the greatest thing. I can't believe more people aren't talking about it. This is practically free."
Personal ownership of natural gas-fueled vehicles in Utah soared from practically nothing a few years ago to an estimated 5,000 vehicles today, overwhelming a growing refueling network, where compressors sometimes can't maintain enough pressure to fill tanks completely for every customer.
"Nobody expected this kind of growth. We got caught by the demand," said Gordon Larsen, a supervisor at Utah utility Questar Gas.
Utah has 91 stations, including 20 open to the public, mostly in the Salt Lake City area. The others are reserved for commercial drivers, such as school districts, bus fleets and big businesses such as a Coca-Cola distributor.
It's possible to drive the interstates between Rock Springs, Wyo., and St. George, Utah — a distance of 477 miles — and find 22 places to pull off and fill up.
California has more stations but prices are much higher there, the equivalent of $2.50 a gallon for gasoline.
"Utah has the cheapest prices by a big margin," said Richard Kolodziej, president of the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, whose members include utilities, Honda Motor Co., environmental groups and transit agencies.
Among major utilities outside of Alaska, Questar is the country's cheapest provider of natural gas for home use. It can offer compressed natural gas for cars even cheaper because of a federal tax credit.
The incentives don't stop there. Buyers of new and some used and converted vehicles can claim their own federal and state tax credits totaling up to $7,000 — nearly the extra cost of a CNG-fueled vehicle.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, paid $12,000 of his own money to modify a state-owned Chevrolet Suburban last June.
"Converting to CNG gives us an opportunity to promote energy security and support a clean-burning alternative," Huntsman said in an e-mail Thursday. "Plus, who can beat running a Suburban on 63 cents a gallon?"
Mike Gaffa, a 39-year-old Continental Airlines reservation clerk, bought a used Ford F-150 pickup for $10,500. The vehicle came with a bonus: a previous owner added three extra tanks that fill the bed of his pickup.
"I don't even keep track of gasoline prices anymore," Gaffa boasted. "You'd be hard-pressed to find another vehicle that can go 600 miles on a fill-up."
And when he runs out of natural gas, he can switch over to a regular gasoline tank for a total range of more than 850 miles.
Utah has caught the attention of Honda, which can't make CNG-equipped Civic GXs fast enough at an Ohio plant. For now, it makes the compact available for sale to individuals only in California and New York, but executives say Utah could be next on their list.
Aside from fleet sales, no other automaker offers a CNG-powered car in the U.S.
Most Utah buyers must turn to the used-car market. They are tracking down vehicles on the Internet, some made earlier by the Detroit automakers. Some dealers here are hauling used CNG vehicles to Utah by the truckload.
"The demand in Utah is huge," Kolodziej said. "It's sucking all the used vehicles from around the country."
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/26/2008 3:12:36 PM | CNG is a viable alternative, with infrastructure mostly already in place; it's cheap now because consumers who use it as motor fuel aren't paying any "user taxes" at all. Distribution and marketing costs are also much lower than liquid fossil fuels.
I just paid $3.69/gal to fill my minivan a couple days ago. My other "beater, the Buick, is at about 1/3 full, I'll have to fill it in the next week, hoping the price drops a tad.
from http://www.api.org/statistics/fueltaxes/
For the first quarter of 2008, the average state gasoline tax is 28.6 cents per gallon, plus 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 47 cents per gallon. For diesel, the average state tax is 29.2 cents per gallon plus an additional 24.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 53.6 cents per gallon. | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/26/2008 3:41:06 PM | Sure it's cheap as dirt now, but if it ever became the primary fuel used in automobiles here in the US, like gasoline/Diesel, the government would force the price up with taxes overnight and the corporations who gouge us on gas would be up to their old tricks with CNG. The problem I would have going to Utah and getting a CNG car is that there is none around where I live. The people who buy those cars in SLC have to stay around town to keep the thing fueled up. I'd love to have a cheaper and cleaner running auto--my Ford Ranger is ethanol compatible, but the fuel is just not widely distributed.
Fuel prices are the sole cause of the economic downturn/recession going on in the United States right now, but the politicians will not move to secure more fuel and the fuel corporations are sure not going to curb their profits to help out. A few weeks ago a loaf of bread at the local supermarket was about $1.98 today the same loaf of bread is running at around $2.40... Wages are not going up nearly as fast as the cost to keep food on the table.
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/26/2008 5:39:32 PM | Does the US Government know about this??
What are the taxes per gallon? Wait until Congress hears about this and you will be paying $4.00 plus per gallon. They just started taxing the internet. Congress has never seen a tax, they did not like. Taxes are not for Revenue purposes, they are for punishment, so says Barrack Obama.
Can normal vehicles run on this or do you need special $50,000.00 plus vehicles to use it? | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/27/2008 7:16:05 AM |
Why doesn't the government investigate? Read about the profits the big oil companies are making. They deregulated the phone company, cable company and airlines--all to make it better for us. All it did was raise the prices.
Don't you understand this is the FREE market working.
It helps GDP thus keeping the USA out of a Recession. | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/27/2008 10:42:22 AM |
Why doesn't the government investigate? Read about the profits the big oil companies are making. Tsk, tsk,tsk.
What would the government investigate? That the oil companies make a profit on what they sell? That is kinda the reason they're in business.
They deregulated the phone company, cable company and airlines--all to make it better for us. All it did was raise the prices. No, no, no. They didn't deregulate anything to make it better for you and me. They deregulated to make markets more competitive, by ripping the caps off the profits. Again, that's why businesses are in business. Regulations were for our benefit, to control prices and profits. | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/27/2008 11:13:16 AM | .
I don’’t eat rice or go to Sam’s...
Don’t you know its just a little ruff patch....
Deregulated Capitalism...Monopoly
What’s to investigate.... We are getting raped by the old Standard Oil
Everyone cried about breaking up Ma Bell... Look what has happened.
Competition.... | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/30/2008 6:24:17 AM | | A few days ago I saw a guy riding around on a little scooter with a briefcase and a really nice business suit . Six months ago I would have laughed and thought he lost a bet or was on a dare. Today at $3.56/gal. I started thinking that guy maybe on to something and a scooter is not such a bad idea for trips to the grocery store, bank, and other little errands in my immediate area. | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/30/2008 8:07:47 AM | That sounds great.
Here in the US it is time to turn Coal to Oil
http://zfacts.com/p/420.html
Search for New Oil Sources Leads to Processed Coal
By MATTHEW L. WALD, July 5, 2006
EAST DUBUQUE, Ill. — The coal in the ground in Illinois alone has more energy than all the oil in Saudi Arabia. The technology to turn that coal into fuel for cars, homes and factories is proven. And at current prices, that process could be at the vanguard of a big, new industry.
Such promise has attracted entrepreneurs and government officials, including the Secretary of Energy, who want domestic substitutes for foreign oil.
But there is a big catch. Producing fuels from coal generates far more carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, than producing vehicle fuel from oil or using ordinary natural gas. And the projects now moving forward have no incentive to capture carbon dioxide beyond the limited amount that they can sell for industrial use.
Here in East Dubuque, Rentech Inc., a research-and-development company based in Denver, recently bought a plant that has been turning natural gas into fertilizer for forty years. Rentech sees a clear opportunity to do something different because natural gas prices have risen so high. In an important test case for those in the industry, it will take a plunge and revive a technology that exploits America's cheap, abundant coal and converts it to expensive truck fuel. | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/30/2008 10:02:25 AM |
A few days ago I saw a guy riding around on a little scooter with a briefcase and a really nice business suit . Six months ago I would have laughed and thought he lost a bet or was on a dare. I'm not a small person. I suppose some found amusement in watching me commute in a snowmobile suit on my moped, back in the late '70s. It got 130 mpg. Sold it when gas prices stabilized around $1.10 per gallon (1984).
I still have a 70+ mpg, 1978 vintage Vespa P200E scooter, it's definitely getting some use this summer.
I think guys driving 10 mpg 4WD pickup trucks look stupid, but I've always been decades ahead in my thinking. | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/30/2008 10:24:47 AM | Currently, we're paying $1.25 per LITRE here in Manitoba. That would be about $5 per gallon.
I'm really glad that I drive my Plymouth Breeze-which only has four cylinder engine and is really great on gas!
"I think guys driving 10 mpg 4WD pickup trucks look stupid..."
I say if some people can afford to drive such gas-guzzling tanks! (AKA, Over-sized Trucks, SUV's, Hummers, etc!) then don't whine & complain about the gas!! I NEVER feel sorry for them!! | |
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| $63.8 cents per gallon .... $2.50 a gallon What are you paying????
Posted: 4/30/2008 2:14:01 PM | | At this point....$1.00 a litre ($4 a gallon) looks good to me!....I am bracing myself for the summer with the predicted $1.50 ltr ($6 a gallon)...thank Gawd I have a 4 cylinder now!...funny how oil companies continue to post record profits year after year!.. | |
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