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Comment by po boy on August 11, 2008 at 16:25

I live in the woods so of course I have back up power. I Have solar and batterys for emergencies, also gas generator i can start up when the freezer starts to thaw out.
I personally would love to have a natural gas generator, or a small cesium reactor, and go completely off the grid.
How ever when we All have natural gas cars and personal power supplies, will the price of natural gas be just as high as gasoline is now?
We need to develop EVERYTHING. I would love to see a ?Manhatten Project? on energy, and for the present time an Executive Order allowing drilling and refinery construction.

Comment by Lonesome Polecat on August 11, 2008 at 8:12

How about synthetic oil from coal. The syn plant could be located next to the oil refinery and take feestock from a slurry coal pipeline (liquid CO2) transfer medium. Coke generated in the refinery would be recycled back to the refinery. This is proven technology at much lower than 100+ dollars per bbl oil. A coal to oil plant at each major refinery would stabilize the price of oil and may not need to be operated until someone tries to run the price of oil up.
Let us know what you think.

Comment by Big Oil on August 11, 2008 at 7:45

T Boone has a plan, it really makes sense and his timing if great.

Perhaps the US Congress will see the desperate place our country has found itself. We need to use every form of energy that is available in the US, clean it up as much as is economically possible and quite the endless debates that no one every really wins.

Most of our political leaders are sitting on their rear ends proposing that since everything takes time to develop we should continue to do nothing. Now that is a plan that they are well equipped to advance for another generation.

Comment by Chris on August 11, 2008 at 4:37

Energy storage can be all manner of physical or chemical or electrochemical systems. For example, pumping water uphill into a tentention pool is energy storage. So ol' T-Bone could pump Mrs Sippi River water to a lake in W TX. Then during peak energy times sell the energy and the water to farmers suffering from Ogallala Aquifer depletion.

All kinds of scenarios become available when we realize that those dang windmills will be putting-out lots of electricity that will at times, have no ready consumer.

Things that looked preposterous because of energy expense suddenly become possible.

Comment by Alamo on August 9, 2008 at 13:22

Boone Pickens' plan will work over the 50 to 75 year short term until our technology solves the ultimate source of our energy which is solar. All fossil fuels--wind, wave, coal, petroleum (oil and natural gas) wood and anything organically derived are solar energy products. Electro-magnetic and atomic energy are the only non-solar energy.

Natural gas liquified or compressed as CNG is far and away the best, most prevalent and least expensive transportation fuel source we have in this country. It can free us of the strangle hold foreign governments have on our economy and ultimately, our standard of living.

As Pickens points out we simply and painfully cannot continue to exist as the nation we believe we are with an annual $700 billion dollar drain on our economy. If that money was immediately used to put in CNG refueling stations in the estimated 25,000 gas stations in the US we could be driving on CNG in a very few years' time. No "Manhattan Project", no "Man on the Moon project" and no additional inventions needed. Install the CNG, connect up the pipelines and you bet GM, Ford and Chrysler will switch to flex fuel engines capable of burning either CNG or gasoline with the flip of a fuel switch. CNG would cost about $2.50 to $3.00 per equivalent gallon of gasoline.

CNG is vastly cleaner burning than gasoline. Imagine burning gasoline in your kitchen stove and you can see the environmental benefits. Many metropolitan bus systems have switched to CNG powered fleets and the rest of us need to do the same.

Crude oil is filthy, unavailable in this country and something that is rapidly destroying our economy. We need a massive public relations campaign that will get the attention of our state legislatures and our Congressmen and women that we need legislation demanding an immediate roll over to CNG. It is a matter of the utmost urgency. Boone Pickens' plan will work--it must work. Our economic backs are up against the wall.

Comment by Jed Clampett on August 8, 2008 at 10:50

Natural gas is a bridge fuel and is a very impt. alternative fuel source because it is quite possibly the only alternative fuel of its type that can run heavy equipment. e.g. Port of Los Angeles has already or is in the process of converting to natural gas. CHK is in the process of investigating ways of exporting natural gas via shipping overseas...just in case its use does not take off as it should domestically...London England is in need of a cheap natural gas import strategy. Therefore, I am sure that if America and its politicians turn their nose up to the Pickens Plan and fails to see the future benefits that the proposed energy alternatives such as natural could provide our nation, such resources will ultimately find their way to foreign markets that will appreciate and utilize their potential. Then tack that on top of the 700 billion already leaving our nation because of foreign oil.

Comment by CR on August 8, 2008 at 7:14

Hydrogen is the power of the future. It can be extracted from water but they say it's cheaper to take it from natural gas. (we didn't think they would eliminate the oil companies all together did we?) All the major auto manufacturers are ready to market one and I think Mazda or Honda is already advertising one. GM is building three hydrogen cell plants in China right now. Theirs is built on a chassis called a "skateboard". Each wheel has it's own electric motor that can be turned on or off by the driver for whatever the driving conditions require. At the present the average range of these vehicles is around 400 miles with top speeds of over 100 mph. The Hydrogen is not burned but it converts to energy through a molecular reaction. The skateboard can be fitted with several different body styles and the consumer, if they have the cash, can actually change the body from say a sports car one day to an SUV the next. The wind towers are good for electrical generation to supplement conventional power plants and so is solar but hydrogen is ready to take over all of it. Look it up folks and you may see another reason to go drilling for the Haynesville Shale.

Comment by po boy on August 8, 2008 at 7:13

wind,solar,atomic,wave,hydroelectric,electromagnetic,thermodynamic,coal should all be developed and brought on line and into the grid. Not as competing,but as complimentary, sources. At this point in history we have most of our eggs in the Oil and Gas basket,

Comment by Jim 007 on August 8, 2008 at 6:53

As far as storage goes, be it solar or wind, all produced energy that is not used is sold back to the energy company and put back into the grid. I don't believe there is any one answer, it will take many many sources to relieve the dependance on others. Lets not forget about Canada, we get a very large % of our oil and gas from north of the border.

Comment by po boy on August 7, 2008 at 9:21

Solar is still not dollar per watt effective. Wind and solar both lack the ability to increase production with demand, and neither can be effectively stored.
I converted a vehicle briefly to natural gas during Carter"s term-poor performance and hard to find places to refuel. no notice savings. If investment in research produces some breakthrus -maybe in the future. Right now we need to focus on building refineries, and the regulations that are the reasons we are not among the 70% of the world paying less than a dollar a gal for gas.

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