Better Fill up today

[frawin]

Nov-08 Crude is trading at $105.325, down $2.695, Nov-08 Natural Gas is Trading at $7.85, down $0.081.

[frawin]

Interesting article and if you believe in what Boone says, then we need to get started drilling our reserves now. It is just a matter of time before our enemies, Russia, Iran Venzuela, and others cut us off in hopes of destroying us. The high cost of energy is one of the big reasons our economy has deteriorated so much in the past 2-3 years.

Pickens' natural gas nation

DAVID PARKINSON

Globe and Mail Update

September 25, 2008 at 9:45 PM EDT



T. Boone Pickens, the 80-year-old oilman-turned-hedge-fund-manager, has already promised to pay $60-million (U.S.) of his own money to push his vision to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Now he is convinced he has worked up a way to drive the message home in Washington, with a burgeoning grassroots lobby force he calls his “army.”



The Texas billionaire says he has dropped a billion in the recent turmoil, but the recent painful pullback in oil prices has not shaken his conviction as a long-term energy bull, or his belief that the largest economy in the world has to source more of its energy needs at home.



As the U.S. presidential election heats up, he's taken on the issue as a personal crusade with his “Pickens Plan” for a new U.S. national energy policy, accompanied by a new book and a grassroots lobby push. Drawing on supporters, he is talking tough about using his influence on the White House.



He has tossed the next president a 100-day deadline to get a comprehensive energy plan together after inauguration.



His plan calls for large-scale development of wind and solar power, but its cornerstone remains a twist on a tried-and-true fossil fuel – unlocking the ample supplies of natural gas that are contained in shale deposits throughout the United States, and converting U.S. drivers to this cheaper, cleaner-burning and domestic-sourced energy supply.



His push for leaders to embrace the Pickens Plan has been gaining momentum through the same medium that helped propel Democratic candidate Barack Obama's presidential campaign: the Internet. Through his website, pickensplan.com, he has signed up 450,000 public supporters, who are being enlisted to turn up the heat on lawmakers and candidates through letter and e-mail campaigns.



“We call them my army,” Mr. Pickens, 80, told The Globe and Mail.



“We're leaning pretty hard on those two [presidential] candidates now – they have to have an energy plan by the time we vote in November. To date, they have no energy plan. They talk about some things, but they don't have a plan.”



“I think we're going to have enough grassroots to push that through in the first hundred days – you don't want to let it go beyond that,” he said. “We'll step up the pressure.”



Despite being a long-time Republican supporter – he was a major campaign contributor to President George W. Bush – Mr. Pickens insisted his Pickens Plan is a non-partisan effort, and he has met with both Mr. Obama and Republican candidate John McCain to discuss it. But he suggested yesterday that he would be willing to throw his support behind whichever candidate was willing to embrace his plan.



“If one accepted the plan and one didn't, it would be hard to say I'm still non-partisan,” he said.



Mr. Pickens said that with 70 per cent of U.S. oil supplies coming from foreign sources, the tab for Americans is $700-billion (U.S.) a year at this summer's prices. And he believes that despite recent pullbacks, the price of oil is ultimately headed higher.



“In my mind, there's very little doubt we'll be back at $150 a barrel within a year from now,” he said. “In 10 years, oil will be $300 a barrel. If that's going to be the case, you're going to go from $700-billion to $1.5-trillion or $2-trillion. It'll break us.”



In that light, he said, people will increasingly support domestic supply solutions over the costly outflow of American dollars into foreign hands.



“It's going to be a patriotic issue,” he said. “Over time, you're not going to want to say you're still driving on foreign gasoline.”



Mr. Pickens is quick to clarify, though, that he doesn't consider Canada a “foreign” oil and gas source.



“It's considered North America – we're all one big happy family.”



In fact, he has urged Washington to make a deal with Canada to secure access to the rich oil sands – even if it means giving some ground to Canada on other trade issues.



“I have said to the President on several occasions that you need to work out something with the Canadians on the oil sands,” he said. “I know the Canadians want something from us. I'd make a deal.”

[mtcookson]

I definitely believe natural gas is the only way to go right now. Its the only viable alternative that currently exists. Electric cars will never be good until they are able to make a high capacity, long lasting battery which still seems to be far off. Hydrogen fuel cell seems to be promising... but... we already have a very good network for natural gas. Almost every home even has it and it shouldn't be difficult at all for filling stations to get natural gas pumps.

The only downside is simply converting the fuel system in cars will net you less power and fuel economy but, natural gas is definitely cheaper and off hand I bet the drop in fuel economy isn't actually enough to make natural gas "more expensive". Of course you get the cleaner emissions as well but another awesome benefit is how cleanly in burns inside the engine (which goes along the clean emissions of course). If you've ever changed or even just checked the oil in your car, and you have a somewhat older vehicle, you've probably noticed the oil is rather dirty and sometimes even completely black. With natural gas that won't happen, at least not for a huge amount of miles well past when the oil has broke down. Its simply cleaner in your engine and will likely even make your engine last longer. It would simply be an excellent alternative... no, replacement.

[frawin]

Mark, One of the Groups I worked for in Midland, Texas was Pickens' partners on some of the takeover attempts, . The group i worked for had a lot of gas production and also had some Gas plants of their own, they put in CNG filling stations for vehicles at all of their plants. Many of the pumpers in the areas of these plants had their vehicles fitted for CNG and stopped and filled at the plants. The group I worked for at the time started this program 15 + years ago. They were also working on a home CNG fillup system whereby you could fill your vehicles at home, it was a small compressor system. The home fill system was never widely accepted, but it maybe a possibility now.One of the things I remember about CNG fuel for vehicles was that people were afraid of it because they didn't understand it. CNG does have great possibilities. Anything and everything we do is going to take 10 years minimum to really have a big impact on our energy/fuel needs. It is obvious that the Democrats intend to hobble the oil and gas industry which will only delay our energy independence longer. 

[mtcookson]

Well... the home filling units still have some work. The current popular home units called Phill, by FuelMaker, fill the tanks at a rate of 1.2 gge (gasoline gallon equivalent) per hour, and that's the highest rated one. That's the equivalent of 1.2 gallons of gas per hour. The slowest model fills at a rate of .9 gge per hour but will fill the tanks to their 3,600 PSI rated capacity meaning a full tank. The others go to 3,000 PSI.

They do make multi-compressor units that fill at a much faster rate but are more designed for companies that have multiple CNG powered vehicles. The fastest fills at a rate of 4.9 gge and the unit that fills to the max rated pressure fills at 3.7 gge.

So, take that CNG Honda Civic for example where it has an 8 gge tank. It would literally take nearly 8 hours to fill it up with a home unit and still nearly 2 hours with the larger units, from empty. Now a filling station would only take about 2 minutes to fill an 8 gge tank so once all of the stations were converted that wouldn't be much of an issue at all.

As far as the fear of CNG, I've seen a lot of people afraid that it could blow up. What's funny is gasoline is just as flammable, actually more so than CNG really. What's awesome about CNG is that if the tank were to break or be punctured it is a gas so would escape as a gas and is lighter than air as well. It would quickly dissipate into the air instead of pooling like gasoline would. Propane on the other hand is heavier than air so would pool down but being in gas form would likely dissipate rather quickly as well.

[frawin]

Just got all of my October business finished. Nov-08 Crude settled at $106.89 down $1.13 on the day, Oct-08 natural Gas settled at $7.742, down $0.252 on the day, today was the last day for October futures to trade.

[Teresa]

President Regan said the closest thing to eternal life is a government program and this is a perfect example.


      What was the reason given for  developing the Department of Energy during the Carter administration?

      We have spent multi-billions of dollars in support of this agency and I will bet not one person
who reads this will remember the reason given.

It was very simple.

      "THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WAS INSTITUTED TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL."


      NOTE:
IN 2008, THE BUDGET FOR THIS DEPARTMENT IS NOW AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR.

      THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES.

[frawin]

Nov-08 Crude is trading at $103.60, down $3.29, Nov-08 Natural Gas is trading at $7.45, down $0.178.

[frawin]

Nov-08 Crude is trading at $101.51, down $5.38, Nov-08 Natural Gas is trading at $7.19, down, $0.438.

[Diane Amberg]

Have you all been watching all the red "down" arrows on the stock market today? The world is dumping us. Way to go congress!  Even oil is dropping.