T. Boone Pickens' idea for getting the US off foreign oil requires a crucial step in the road he outlines: switching a lot of vehicles to natural gas instead of oil-based fuels. It is the sometimes-forgotten step in the vaunted Plan. Get off foreign oil by getting lots of power from wind (and presumably solar). Since oil and electricity have little to do with each other, the middle step is shifting from natural gas-fired electricity to wind and solar, and sending the gas to vehicles instead.
Millions of people, including important members of Congress, have signed on to Pickens' vision -- without necessarily buying into the natural gas vehicle part of it. Energy Secretary Steven Chu still isn't signing on, either.
Use of transportation fuel in general should be reduced by better fuel efficiency, he said. "Remember, if we significantly shift our transportation to use natural gas, that will put a strain on natural gas for industrial uses, for heating and electricity generation. So, again, it is a complicated issue."
Speaking to reporters after making remarks at the Energy Information Administration's energy conference today in Washington, Chu said he was "agnostic" about the idea of promoting natgas for transportation. It's important to look at alternative transportation fuels, like advanced biofuels, he said. "I don't know which one will win. I think we should look at both."
He didn't mention electricity -- a little odd, given that battery technology keeps advancing, and General Motors and Segway just unveiled their tiny urban creation, the Puma Project. But Chu may have been thinking only about the big vehicles, for which electricity isn't practical. For that category, where Pickens says natgas is a natural, it seems the Department of Energy isn't convinced.
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