retmil46 wrote:
Or like NC they'll start pushing a road useage tax - I think 1/4 cent per mile is the current proposal. A while back, they even proposed having NC join the ranks of the CARB states as far as emissions. Considering that their asinine tax policies have already helped run most of the worthwhile jobs out of the state, I don't see this making it any better.
Now you've got old T Boone Pickens on CNBC this morning, pushing his wind and natural gas plan (just coincidental he happens to be heavily invested in both). Now he's saying you can replace all the 18 wheelers on the road with natural gas rigs, claiming huge reductions in emissions ( not saying he's wrong, just that so far his claims aren't verified), and that we can do away with these nasty soot-belching diesels while at the same time reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Of course, he's wanting the government to spend OUR (taxpayer) money to do this.
I'm sure he'd find some support in the EPA and CARB, given how some of their more strident members have voiced their outright opposition to anything diesel. OTOH, guess someone forgot to tell old T Boone that diesels can run on natural gas as well - so switching to natural gas wouldn't necessarily mean getting rid of diesels.
Of course, he doesn't bother mentioning how many billions of dollars it would cost and how long it would take to set up a fueling infrastructure and replace/convert tens of millions of vehicles on the road - but I'm quite sure he and his companies are willing to sell us the equipment to do so - at a fair profit to him, of course.
Hey T Boone, oil billionaire extraordinaire, how's this for an idea - if you believe that heavily in natural gas and reducing our dependence on foreign oil, why don't you try spending some of YOUR money and build some GTL refineries - like some Middle Eastern countries are already doing - to convert natural gas into synthetic diesel and gasoline, that can be distributed with the existing infrastructure and used in existing vehicles?
And we thought the equipment needed for Urea would add to the weight and bulk of the ORTs. Every pound you add to the truck reduces the load hauling capacity, a simple law of physics. T BoneHead Pickens likes to impress Journalists who can't grasp simple basic concepts like weight and hauling capacity.
Lets not over look all of out Elected Officials who have invested in Natural Gas and will get even richer if the CNG for ORTs becomes a reality. I guess we now know why they are trying to kill of the diesel.