Gasoline

Compressed natural gas offers the best opportunity for a majority of the nation’s drivers to be weaned off of gasoline as their primary transportation fuel, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a House subcommittee last week.

Compressed natural gas offers the best opportunity for a majority of the nation’s drivers to be weaned off of gasoline as their primary transportation fuel, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a House subcommittee Tuesday.

Researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative (MITEI) say natural gas has a bright future, but they said the government needs to be more involved and industry needs to remain vigilant over potential — but so far unrealized — environmental disasters.

There is evidence that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can affect aquifers and water supplies, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson, but she is “not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wednesday announced a final rule easing the way for the conversion of cars and trucks, particularly older vehicles, from gasoline or diesel power to alternative fuels, including compressed natural gas (CNG), propane, alcohol and electricity.

As gasoline pump prices continue to soar, proponents for more natural gas use as a transportation fuel are popping up around the nation, using environmental and economic drivers to promote their cause. Cities including Chicago and gas-rich states like Texas and Wyoming are getting in on the act.

The Marcellus Shale could hold as much as 500 Tcf of natural gas, according to some. That gas is conveniently close to markets in the Midwest and Northeast; however, the natural gas liquids (NGL) associated with some Marcellus production are far from what is considered to be their ideal home, namely the U.S. Gulf Coast. And that’s a problem, analysts have noted lately.

Heading into the Labor Day weekend with a full tank of gasoline might give holiday-makers a reason to smile, but natural gas bulls staring at the end of summer with storage caverns brimming more than usual have little to cheer.

California looks to spend another $100 million in 2010-2011 under a mandate from a 2007 state law (AB 118) to help reduce gasoline-powered transportation in favor of renewables and alternatives such as natural gas-powered transportation. The California Energy Commission (CEC) has formally begun the process of writing a 2010-11 investment plan for the state’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program.