Thomas Friedman

One of my favorite journalists is Thomas Friedman. To me he has a refreshingly practical common-sense approach to his writing that fits well with his insightful and not-always-obvious observations that strike at the core of issues.

Here his most recent op-ed "Real Men Tax Gas" discusses how we are still unwilling to take steps to reduce our dependence on oil - the one thing that would weaken our enemies the most. The essential crux of his argument: Why are we so willing to send thousands of more young Americans to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan, but so unwilling to seek energy alternatives to oil? And what does that say about us?

There are arguments on both sides of this, and there are certainly valid arguments that it's not all about oil... but Friedman as usual hits on a key point that has gone largely un-addressed.

Conspiracy theory - natural gas

I read this article on seeking alpha this morning about some pretty startling and prohibitive licensing requirements for shops that want to do gas to natural gas fuel conversions for automobiles. Apparently due due to the conversion costs conversions only appeal to large fleets that drive very high miles.

I read enough of the comments to this article to convince me that there's at least a nugget of truth in here. I don't know that conversions vs. original manufacture is the way to go for proponents (see example from AT&T fleet here), but it does seem serious economic barriers have been put in place to keep consumers on gasoline even if you wanted to change.

Some other articles:
Who even know they exist? It's a pretty good summary article that discusses some of the vehicles on the road today - and indicates there are about 150,000 on the road currently in the U.S. and about 5 million worldwide. The article indicates many feel Natural Gas could have the largest impact if treated as a premium fuel for the most polluting and heavy duty vehicles if possible. Article also indicates there's not much consumer demand for natural gas vehicles.

Boone Pickens Plan

Check out this energy plan by Boone Pickens. It's nice and even somewhat inspiring to see someone from the energy community coming forward with some productive alternatives other than "drill more oil."



Essentially he's saying to take the 22% of natural gas that currently goes to electric generation and replace it with wind power. Then move the natural gas to fuel vehicles. Here's a 4 minute video.

Here's a web page version of the business case.