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Buy CNG Powered Cars for Energy Independence Why buy a Chevy Volt for $40,000 when you can buy a CNG powered Chevy for $15,000, in Thailand that is? by Jack Corbett
Does it upset you that I can buy a General Motors car for $15,000 that can use either regular gasoline or CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) at one third the price just down the street from my home here in Thailand? And if my filling station doesn't have CNG to sell me I can just flip the switch to my 11 gallon gasoline tank and fill up with regular. Well it should make you angry enough to start your own revolution once you fully digest that the U.S. has at least a 200 year supply of natural gas, and all these excuses politicians are making that it won't work are complete lies. You are getting the silent treatment on what will really work to restore the American economy while completely obsoleting any form of military presence in the Mideast--so much so that even General Motors employees living in the U.S. aren't even aware of this car's existence. Now take a look at the picture below and continue reading, but first be prepared to really lose your temper.  You are looking at a ski resort in the middle of the desert in Dubai which is one fraction of the toilet representing American worldwide vital interests. You--everyone of you who can vote in American elections have been lied to, misled, and cheated in the biggest cover-up you can imagine. But then again, perhaps you were too naive to ask the right questions. The first component of the cover-up is that Americans are facing an energy crisis, the second is that we are paying taxes and fighting wars to protect our vital interests while the third is that we must continue to be held hostage to foreign oil producing nations and our own oil companies. All of this amounts to a lot of nation building in the Mideast and other oil producing nations, while the nation building in our own country stops and along with it goes the jobs that need to go to Americans to get our economy rolling again. What is needed is a coherent solution to all of this misplaced nation building that focuses entirely around energy independence so that we can do the nation building here at home.
There is no energy crisis in the U.S.
The United States is still a wealthy country that is so large and full of natural resources that it could become an island unto itself and tell the rest of the world to take care of itself. There's over 300 million Americans which is more than enough people to guarantee a huge consumer base for everything that is produced here along with a huge labor force that is able to supply that market. We also have the natural resources to get this job done. To begin with the United States has a tremendous agricultural industry that is the envy of the rest of the world that makes it the greatest net exporter of food on the planet. We have more than a 200 year supply of natural gas and an even greater supply of coal, and we are still producing roughly 45 % of our own oil which puts us far ahead of countries such as Japan that have virtually no oil producing capabilities of their own.
Our nation's "vital interests" aren't your vital interests
When we are fighting a war in Afghanistan, Iraq or helping Europeans bomb Libyan government troops we aren't doing this to make the people in these countries feel safer or to protect them from gangster regimes. We are doing this for one reason only--Big Oil. We need to be in such countries to protect the supply lines and production facilities of Big Oil--otherwise we'd be providing military and economic assistance to Indonesia for example where a Civil War has reputedly already claimed over 400,000 lives or for combating genocide in Africa.
So let me ask everyone--when is the last time that you got a discount at the gas station because you are an American and our troops are protecting our vital interests? Never. And the reason is it's not your interests or even your right to cheap oil that's at stake. What is at stake is the lifeline to obscene profits for the multi national oil companies.
Why is it that the United States is only days away from defaulting on its financial obligations and it's Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs that the Republicans are wanting to take deep cuts out of while military spending and raising taxes on only the wealthiest Americans are taboo? Obviously the vital interests of most Americans are not even part of the equation.
I want to know why we still have 30,000 American servicemen in Korea? I know, I know. North Korea has nuclear weapons now and it's trying to produce an ICBM that can reach the United States. But come on. When Korea is wearing big enough pants that it can have its own Koreans only clubs here in Thailand where I'm living and the people at the door have the audacity to tell me I cannot come into a club, I tend to ask myself some pretty big questions, such as why did we ever fight the Korean War in the first place? Okay, I'm a white guy. Where's the gratitude? May I suggest tit for tat, let's pull the troops out and make Korea pay for all of its own self defense? If we had done that a long time ago, perhaps you'd be buying Zenith televisions made in the U.S. instead of Samsungs due to Korea's not getting a free ride at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer.
And what is all this crap about having to pour billions of dollars into Afghanistan and Iraq in order to make both countries safe for Democratic forms of government to flourish? We've already tried that in Vietnam and it didn't work. And it's not going to work in either Iraq or Afghanistan either just as it is not working today in Thailand where I've been living for the past six years. We might think that Thailand Democracy was formed from an image of the American model, but I'm going to tell you that this is altogether not true.
We tried propping up a corrupt government in Vietnam while promising the world that we were protecting it from Communism. We dropped almost three times as many bombs on that little country as we dropped on both Japan and Germany in World War II, were responsible for the deaths there for at least one and a quarter million people and the Communists still won. We had been using Thailand as our main base for bombing big bad Vietnamese Communists in order to save the world from all those Communists in Russia, and guess what? Freedom loving Thailand is now being overrun by Russians while I've hardly seen any Russians in Vietnam and I've already been there four times. Here I'm living in Thailand and there seems to be as many signs and restaurant menus in Russian as there are in English. I can't even buy a Budweiser beer here but I sure as hell can in Communist Vietnam. And I haven't been able to find one single sign or restaurant menu in Russian while traveling through Vietnam where whole sections of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are starting to look like little Europe and mini U.S.A. and not at all like Little Moscow. As for Vietnam's museums, it seems that all the exhibits are described in three languages, Vietnamese, English and French without even one single word in Russian as even a courtesy to the birthplace of modern Communism. So if this is how Communism works Southeast Asia style, I say bring it on because the next thing that's going to happen is I'll be buying and drinking Russian beer here and still not be able to buy American beer just up the street from my condo here in Thailand.
So what was that war all about? Well I can guarantee you that all of our present wars are as much to do about nothing as our Crusade against Communism in Vietnam--unless it's about the profits of the oil companies. There can be no doubt that every dollar we are spending in Iraq or Afghanistan is wasted money that could have been used to rebuild America and that every American dollar that is used to support our troop presence in Korea or Japan, Germany or in practically any sovereign nation should have been spent on rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and providing jobs in the U.S. instead of overseas.
What are our vital interests we need to protect?
We need to protect Americans, and this means not just wealthy Americans, or the oil companies, and certainly not foreigners residing in their home countries. This means the U.S. should provide an environment where there’s reasonable access to jobs and economic security. Having military bases in the Middle East and troops deployed to protect the interests of big oil does not give Americans access to jobs and economic security. In fact, it does the opposite. And so do civilians who are employed on construction projects in Middle Eastern countries. The reason is because both force the U.S. to sacrifice its infrastructure by forcing us to send petrodollars to finance military weapons, construction projects and a whole host of expensive projects that are of absolutely no use to anyone except for U.S. companies selling expensive weapons systems, oil companies, and so called American allies such as Saudi Arabia which sell us oil in return for all that expensive military hardware, construction projects that should have been built on American soil and expensive yachts for wealthy sheiks all of which is of no benefit to anyone but a small minority of Americans.
The excuse for bleeding the U.S. dry is "we must protect our vital interests" which everyone knows is oil. We have been told we must have it to power our cars, and that no viable substitute has been found. It's all a scam and it's one of the most rotten inexcusable scams ever perpetrated. Now wouldn't it be better if we simply told our politicians who certainly have their hand in the cookie jar and the military--enough is enough. We want to spend all of our money in the U.S. rebuilding our infrastructure while creating jobs for Americans in America. Shouldn't we want to rebuild America by taking all that military investment from overseas and putting it to good use over here building a vast new infrastructure around U.S. originated fuels and the vehicles and buildings that use them.
Game Changing new cars
Let's suppose that we could rebuild our transportation system and while doing so we created millions of jobs for Americans. We could even bring all American troops back to the U.S. while keeping them on salary and all those salaries would be spent in the U.S. creating more jobs for Americans. The key as we did with those 19th century steam powered locomotives we must use home grown or home produced fuels.
We can rebuild our ethanol producing industry for example or we could build plants that produce clean coal. Most American ethanol is produced from corn which is an expensive way to produce ethanol. Nevertheless it's a lot better than sending all our petro dollars to line the pockets of a Saudi sheik, and it's not because we want to deprive the sheik of his latest yacht, it's because much of that money being spend to produce expensive ethanol will be circulated in the United States and by being circulated here it's producing new American jobs rather than building expensive ski resorts out in a Mid Eastern desert.
There is a weed called Switch grass that's a much more efficient source for ethanol. But it would take billions to produce the processing plants that produce the ethanol simply because the technology is so different from what it takes to convert corn to ethanol.
We can do that and a lot more by just pulling out of Korea alone. We presently have 30,000 U.S. servicemen in Korea protecting the South Koreans from North Korea. Since South Korea doesn’t have to provide what it should be spending for its own self-defense thanks to this "American umbrella" it’s been able to spend it all on its own industries building cars, television and other electronics goods which it can sell cheaply to Americans at the expense of our own domestic producers. If it were not for our defense umbrella, Korea would not have the competitive advantage it enjoys today over American industry.
Why must we keep sending billions overseas for foreign oil and for deploying the most powerful military in the world to protect those who have nothing whatsoever to do with our vital interests when we should be spending all that money towards U.S. energy independence? The truth is it really doesn't matter what we use to create the fuels of the future as long as it's produced over here in the U.S. It can be windmills, hydro-electric, clean coal, geo thermal, solar--it doesn't matter because wherever we build the plants producing alternative fuels a lot of jobs will be directly created while the people earning money from these jobs will be spending that money to employ still more people and so on.
A step in the right direction is the new Chevrolet Volt. The beauty of using electricity to power cars is that electricity produced from coal, hydro-electric, nuclear, solar, wind, etc can be stored in batteries which theoretically could end our addiction to oil. Other than the high initial cost of the electric cars because of the high priced electric power technology and batteries, the chief disadvantage of electric cars is the lack of range. For instance the new Nissan Leaf has a maximum range of 100 miles. Which is enough for urban commuters who never intend to take their electric vehicle on a long trip. What the Chevrolet Volt has going for it that the other electrics don't is a gas powered power-plant that takes over the moment the car's battery gives out, which is typically 60 miles. For most urban driving situations the Volt should handle all the driving on battery powered alone after which the operator plugs his car into an AC charging unit once he gets home. But if he runs down his battery on a local commute or even takes a long trip, he can extend his range another 300 miles by switching to the gasoline engine. One can expect the Chevrolet Volt and new cars like it to take advantage of vastly improved batteries. A recent development in electric car technology is the new Kolibri battery battery from Germany that will run over 280 miles on a single charge. The battery utilizes polymer materials which make it significantly lighter.
The main drawback to the Chevrolet Volt is its high initial cost of $40,000--which is around $33,000 after factoring in the new owner's tax credits. But suppose a car were available today for half that price and you could switch to gasoline once you ran out of a much cheaper fuel?
The car would run on CNG which is compressed natural gas. The United States possesses abundant supplies of natural gas and that means energy independence. But--the use of natural gas has several drawbacks. First---presently there's only 1000 or so facilities for refueling in the U.S. Second-- CNG powered vehicles do not have as much horsepower as their gasoline fueled counterparts--for example a Honda Civic GX that you can buy today develops only 113 horsepower from its 1800 c.c. engine compared to the 140 horsepower of its gasoline fueled sibling. Third--CNG fueled cars lack the range of vehicles using gasoline. Fourth--the fuel tank is normally stored in the car's trunk thus limiting the space available for luggage.
In Thailand a large percentage of taxis are running on CNG for one third the cost of running on gasoline and although the fuel tank limits trunk space I have no problem getting my large suitcase in along with my camera bag and laptop. I have noticed that the taxi drivers using CNG will often take me to a refueling station before taking me to my destination. This destination has usually been to the Bangkok International Airport. Once the taxi is refueled from my experience it can make the run to Bangkok and back without refueling. From a passenger's perspective the taxis I've ridden in are just as quiet and smooth running as their gasoline fueled counterparts while any lack of power is unnoticeable from my passenger seat.
The CNG fueled Civic reportedly does zero to sixty in 12.6 while getting up to 200 miles without refueling which still highlights two of its chief drawbacks--relatively short range and the lack of refueling facilities throughout the U.S., two disadvantages that would be serious only on long cross country trips since Honda is now offering home refueling units.
The disadvantage from this relative lack of range would disappear as soon as enough refueling centers appear on the American landscape. As far as I'm concerned, I'd prefer our severing the umbilical cord of our oil addiction to the Mideast as soon as possible rather than having to wait for it to suffer a slow natural death brought on by an acceleration of price increases brought on by huge increased demand as countries such as China and India put more and more cars on the road. We could for example impose much higher gas taxes on gasoline which would cause the move to battery powered and CNG cars to accelerate. At the same time refueling outlets would spring up all along American highways like mushrooms.
Until they do, what is a motorist to do while taking long trips? There is another car and it's available today. The car will get up to 120 miles out of a small CNG tank in the trunk. But it has another tank on board that's good for 40 liters (around 10.5 gallons) so a motorist can drive on CNG until his tank is empty before turning a switch that immediately starts fueling the car's engine with gasoline. I can buy this car for $23,000 at a Chevrolet dealer just 3 miles from my condo here in Thailand. It's made in Rayong at a GM plant one hour away. Considering that cars here in Thailand are considerably more expensive than they are in the U.S. I would think that it can be marketed in the U.S. for around $15,000. That's a huge savings over what one might pay for the Chevrolet Volt.
I find it amazing to be able to find out what's really happening in the world by living outside of the U.S. where the propaganda never stops. You can observe in Thailand, which many Americans probably perceive as a Third World country the unrelenting demand for more and more cars which the oil companies have been telling us for years HAVE TO BE FUELED BY GASOLINE ONLY. But Thailand only has 70 million people. China with an even more voracious appetite for oil, has over 1.3 billion people while India has over 1.2 billion citizens all wanting cars. With that kind of demand there is no way to keep gasoline prices from skyrocketing out of the roof. So why have we been doing all these years waging war in the Mideast? The handwriting has been on the wall for some time now that forces far greater than the oil companies obsessive thirst for profits will force Americans to give up their addiction to oil.
If the U.S. economy doesn't completely fall apart first due to the childish selfish whims of our politicians and too many stupid Americans willing to follow their line of horseshit, our addiction to oil is about to end. So let's get that train going as fast as we can. It's high time that we stop all that nation building overseas and start to do a little of our own. Batteries, solar, wind, natural gas---it all travels on the same train to energy independence that's going to create a lot of new jobs, and as for our nation's vital interests--they aren't overseas. They aren't in Korea and they aren't in Iraq. Let them all get on with their own nation building and if they wind up with governments as corrupt as Thailand's or Burma's or Saigon's before it was toppled by the Communists, that's their problem, not ours. All of this does not mean that we should pursue an isolationist policy towards the rest of the world--it merely means that we stop being the world's policeman and that we stop doing all that nation-building overseas while neglecting our own people .
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