Editor’s mailbag: Yes, we have an alternative fuel if only we would make use of it (June 21)

I found the item from Jack C. White in the June 14 (Sunday) edition entitled “Oil in the ground is like money in the bank” to be well written, informative and on target, as far as it went. However, I was actually surprised that someone who seems to be so knowledgeable would fail to mention that we already have at our disposal an alternative to gasoline or the lunacy of ethanol.

This fuel source is plentiful, reasonably priced, burns in our combustion engines, is much cleaner burning than gasoline or diesel and has been used by almost every state and major city in the U.S. to power some of their cars for decades.

Its use would require a minimum of technology for conversion and would allow us to keep oil in the ground for other uses such as fertilizer, asphalt, plastics and the other non-transportation uses that are a vital part of life in the U.S.

This “magic bullet” is compressed natural gas and its close cousin propane. Instead of bailing out banks, insurance companies and car manufacturers, we should be spending these trillions of dollars on converting to these fuels so we can stop sending $800 billion a year to people who are our sworn enemies.

Within a reasonably short period of time the savings would enable us to address health care, education and the rest of the “wish list” that will either bankrupt the country or depress the economy for generations.

Plus, we could tell Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Saudi sheiks to kiss our you-know-what.

I urge everyone who reads this to Google CNG, propane or Pickens Plan and see it for yourself.

Gene Gradwohl, Shedd

Buck