Energy Independence 

We can all agree we need to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. The question is how? I believe the answer is here and ignored for political reasons. When Companies and Government work together that is called Fascism, that is the direction our nation is headed and We the people must stop it. We need to get involved and pay attention. One of the main problems is, running for office is too expensive, so we end up with wealthy people that are beholden to even more wealthy people. That has not bode well for our republic. We need to get involved and look at just the people you vote for, to represent you. Look for the ones that have good ideas, not the best advertising! Blumenauer can out spend me $100 to $1 he has big money supporters!

Our dependence on foreign oil is continued only because our politicians have great sums of money invested in this area, and are beholden to those companies for funding their elections to put them in office. Make you feel warm and fuzzy all over? No? Me neither! We need a fuel source that:

• We, the United States of America, has large reserves of capable of lasting 1000 years.
• Economical (preferably costing less per BTU that petroleum).
• Requires no new technological advances required to implement its use.
• Significant existing distribution infrastructure already in place.
• Billions of passenger-miles of use to demonstrate its effectiveness and safety.
• Cleaner Environmentally, putting less carbon and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

Sounds great right? A pipe dream maybe? No! The fact is Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is the answer. It fills all the above criteria

• Currently US natural gas usage is about 25 Trillion cubic feet (tcf) per year. The Natural Gas Supply Association (naturalgas.org) estimates there are currently 1200 tcf in recoverable reserves enough to provide approximately 48 years of supply, not using it commonly to fuel vehicles. But this number is likely vastly underestimated because the stated reserves never seem to drop, with additional supplies constantly becoming available. The Gulf Coast appears to be particularly rich in "geopressurized zones" which often are huge reserves of gas. Experts in the field estimate there are between 5000 to 49,000 tcf located there. That is enough to last 200 - 1900 years. Even more has been located in the perma frost regions of the arctic and found in Ocean floor formations below about 1000’. They estimate 7,000 - 73,000 tcf or a 280 - 2,920 years of additional supply.
• Fuels are primarily sold by the BTU (British Thermal Units) let’s take the present cost of gas I paid $3.55 yesterday 04/25/08 minus the Oregon and Federal taxes of $.434 so $3.116 per gal I figured it at $3.11 per gallon (didn’t want to mess with the points, but they add up!) is $24.88 per million BTU. Natural gas is $13.64 for a savings of over 45%!
• According to the National Gas Vehicle Coalition, there are currently 130,000 natural gas fueled vehicles in the United States, and over 2.5 million worldwide! LNG takes about 1/3 more tank volume in a vehicles gas tank. We currently have LNG/gas vehicles, the oil in them remains uncontaminated by carbon reducing wear on the engine and extending the life of the vehicle.
• We have 300,000 miles of existing natural gas pipelines. We have more than 11,000 delivery points, 5000 receipt points and as the Idaho National Laboratory reports "small scale liquefied natural gas points, that draw from existing natural gas lines, are becoming increasingly attractive"
• With 130,000 in the US and 2.5 million vehicles worldwide, the safety issue seems proven. The Los Angeles school District was already using 13 natural gas buses in the year 2000 because the district learned that many children were sensitive to the normal bus emissions.
• Take the cleaner emissions statement from the LA County school district and add the elimination of the carbon that keeps engines on the road longer! If you believe carbon is causing global warming this adds far less than 50% of it to the atmosphere when compared to petroleum, as well as the need to build new engines as often.

Left to its own devices, the free market will find the best product for the particular use at the best price. It is unwise and unnecessary to have a federal programs of subsidizing anything. In a true open system these idea’s would be out and we as consumers would be allowed to determine which fuel we use to run our vehicles. Government force always causes misallocations of resources, eventually resulting in economic damage to both consumer and producer. An economic fact that many politicians never seem to understand.