Kicking the Oil Habit

...Once the dust settles in the desert, maybe Americans will realize that there are better ways to get their hydrocarbons than by fighting for them, and that there are better ways to get to work in the moming than by driving a gas guzzler...

...All energy sources should then be taxed in proportion to the costs they impose on society through pollution, resource depletion, and security risks...

...A “dedicated CNG engine” will get higher efficiency and performance by taking advantage of the 135 octane rating of natural gas...

...Even when you take into account the emissions caused by making the electricity they use, EVs contribute less to local smog than gasoline-powered cars...

...By plugging an on-board charger into a socket at home, you could juice up your EV overnight for about half the cost of the gasoline it would take to drive as far...

...EVs are quiet, rechargeable virtually anywhere, and clean...

...That sort of pumping will meet one year of national demand at best, while leaving the U.S...

...We all know two-car families-in fact, there are about 40 million U.S...

...Detroit would be willing to optimize an NGV if there were a solid market for it, and mass production would eliminate the high cost of retrofits...

...Although the to run on oil-the gasoline engine, transmission, exhaust system, and radiator have been stripped out and replaced with one ton of batteries and an electric motorit is ideal for predictable, short-haul urban driving...

...I have personally visited one-third of all the supposedly public CNG pumps in America: at the Amoco station at 9th and Pennsylvania in Southeast D.C...

...That’s about as much oil as we import from the Persian Gulf...

...It was a bit of a letdown when I finally got to drive an automobile powered by natural gas...

...Guilt- and Gulf-free Aside from waging war in the Gulf, the Bush energy strategy should include more than just lobbying for oil pumping in environmentally sensitive areas...

...But surely the scarcity problem is fixable...

...Reward as well as Penalize Automakers: A sliding scale of tough penalties on dirty gas guzzlers balanced by rebates for the leanest and cleanest would tell Detroit and Japan what to do...

...Like the Chrysler I drove, nearly all NGVs now on the road have modified (“dual-fuel”) gasoline engines...

...Because the fuel is so much cleaner than gasoline, vehicles running on it require less maintenance and fewer oil changes . And this is no fantasy fuel...

...With the help of Paul MacCready, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ “Engineer of the Century,” GM has already built a prototype high-performance electric sportscar, regrettably called “Impact...

...2) Convert private fleets of company cars, delivery vans, and taxis...

...That didn’t mean we should have given up on PCs...

...The conversion sequence could work like this: 1) Start with government-owned or -operated cars, buses, and trucks that run on regular schedules...

...Silent running While we’re waiting for these natural gas filling stations to sprout up, we can begin switching to electric vehicles (EVs...

...Clearly, in many of these households-more common sense-the family tends to rely on one car for trips around town, another for trips on the open road...

...Adding compressed natural gas capability runs about $2,000, in part because it is done on a small custom scale...

...In Texas, one-third of new transit and private fleet purchases in metropolitan areas must be alternative fuel vehicles by 1994...

...Put one EV in each multi-car family, throw in all those short-range fleet cars and vans, and you’re talking about a hefty slice of the market...

...Think about it: streets full of softly humming vehicles, not a tailpipe in sight...

...Once this snowball effect gets big enough, perhaps Americans will be able to drive coast-to-coast in natural gas vehicles . . . which means we’d finally catch up to the Canadians, who already can...

...The ideal initial target group for converting to natural gas, for instance, is fleet vehicleswhich consume 20 percent of our road transportation energy...

...Imagine what this could do for New York City’s air quality...

...households, and more every year, with two or more cars...

...Neither poses the national security problems of petroleum...

...After all, the majority of clients at National, Hertz, and Avis are businessmen who tend to use their cars only to get around town (a National employee in D.C...

...Since our troops are presumably not dying to protect OPEC’s right to overcharge us for oil, let’s assume that when the war ends, oil will finally trade at its market price...

...But although EVs have been around for a century, they are still rare creatures, numbering less than 10,000 worldwide...

...Oil may have helped make the United States great, but it’s time to start letting go...

...Both are cleaner than gasoline...

...As friends warned me it dant [see ' ' ~ n e rW~ith~o ut Emirs," October by Peter Gray 19901...

...The trick is to identify the transortation niche that each can fill and then g-adually begin displacing gasoline-powered vehicles...

...If we can require labels on cigarette packs and beer bottles, we can certainly do so on automobiles...

...Because of an archaic utility regulation prohibiting resale, this D.C...

...An EV drives pretty much like any other car, except that the brakes feel odd...

...Using coal-fired power, they produce slightly more carbon dioxide, but 90 percent less when they use nuclear, and 100 percent less with renewable energy...

...Now consider this fact: The average commute to work by car-round-trip-is only 10 miles...

...The key to breaking this gridlock is to begin with cars that travel local routes and can be centrally fueled...

...And when environmental effects are counted, both cost less...

...The pump is a simple white box sporting Amoco’s green-leaf CNG logo and two thin hoses...

...4) Convert most rental cars to natural gas...

...In fact, from the planet’s perspective, the situation had changed radically...

...This isn’t likely to be a big hit with the average consumer, although reduced maintenance costs would sweeten the deal...

...estimated that the average businessman puts only 20 miles on the odometer...

...The fuel itself is 30 to 50 percent cheaper than gasoline, and likely to stay that way for at least a few more automobile lifetimes...

...The Impact has a top speed of 110 mph and a range of 120 miles...

...A lot of us would discover that driving can be much cheaper than it is now-and guilt-free at the same time...

...Out on the open road, I flipped a switch on the dash to go from gasoline to compressed natural gas (CNG) and . . . nothing happened...

...A smarter system would put a statement on each sticker such as: “This car will cost about $W per year to own and operate...

...Get Fuel Prices Right: Until the price of each commodity reflects the side effects of its use, we won’t get the full benefits of a free market...

...GM is currently touting Impact research in television spots...

...An instant’s hesitation, and then the Chrysler drove as it had before...

...That’s because when you step on the brake pedal, the motor becomes a generator, pumping energy back into the batteries instead of dumping it overboard as waste heat...

...Any serious discussion of breaking our petroleum addiction has to focus on transportation...

...EVs can also be used commercially...

...The more cities that follow Texas’s model, the cheaper conversion will be for all...

...In the long run, putting money into efficiency R&D will do as much to protect and improve the American way of life as investing in more Patriot missiles...

...Vehicles drink nearly 12 million of the 18 million barrels we use daily, and most of that goes into cars, trucks, and buses...

...Or so it seemed...

...This higher efficiency will help close the gap in driving range between NGVs and conventional cars-CNG currently requires four times the fuel-storage volume as gasoline...

...Sure, we have EPA mileage ratings, but they run 15 percent higher than reality, and they aren’t much use in buying decisions...

...The electric van would cost about five percent less to own and operate than a gasoline-powered one...

...For environmental reasons, this feature makes EVs more attractive in traffic-congested areas...

...outlet, which isn’t yet operational, won’t even be able to sell natural gas to the public...

...Canada, with one-tenth of our population, has an NGV fleet two-thirds as large...

...that number will go up to 50 percent in 1996, and 90 percent by 1998...

...Better fuel tanks should reduce weight and increase range...

...But we have the tools to get the oil-monkey off our backs-if only we'd choose to use them...

...Fleet vehicle,” the catch-all category, includes buses, delivery vans, garbage trucks, taxicabs, even rental cars-in all, about 10 percent of American vehicles...

...We are doing everything we can to guarantee . . . that there will be an adequate supply of hydrocarbons,” declared George Bush during the early days of the Gulf crisis-in retrospect, perhaps the most chilling comment on American preparations for war...

...You may agree that the warm feeling of doing a little extra for national security and the environment would more than balance any small differences in cost and convenience...

...New Zealand’s proportion is 320 times as high as the U.S.’s...

...For that trip, you don’t exactly need the Batmobile...

...The stuff had always made life easier-until the aftereffects kicked in...

...Kicking the Oil Habit How to get alternative fuel cars on the road, Lots of them, Right now...

...Customers who rent for local use could get discounts for renting NGVs...

...Transportation is 97 percent oil-dependent, while electricity generation is only 5 percent...

...Have you ever seen a CNG filling station...

...3) Switch longer-range government vehicles to natural gas...

...with less in reserve for the next crisis...

...Those countries haven’t wrecked their economies or deprived their citizens of the inalienable right to the thrill of the open road...

...The NGV I drove is owned by Washington Gas, which had to send the car to West Virginia for conversion...

...The ABCs of NGVs Converting to natural gas vehicles poses a chickenand-egg dilemma...

...In fact, General Motors is aiming to have a marketable EV on the road by mid-decade...

...Through more aerodynamic designs, higher pressure tires, and an improved power train, MacCready thinks we can double auto energy efficiency without loss of safety or performance...

...But before you rush into anything, let me warn you of a little problem you’ll run into 100-odd miles down the road...

...With the help of NGVs, cleaning up the air and protecting the beaches, reducing the risk of global warming and keeping troops out of the Middle East can be achieved without drastically changing your life...

...Although oil use for purposes besides transportation has dropped 20 percent since the mid-seventies, vehicles have boosted their demand by about the same amount...

...The only thing missing was the gasoline...

...If, as Bush suggested it would in his State of the Union Address, the administration focuses in the next year on the need for a credible energy policy, here are some more imaginative steps it might consider: *Consumer Information: as in labeling, for example...

...And it takes place at an average speed of 31 mph...

...Improved efficiency not only cuts oil demand directly, but it also strengthens the case for lower-density alternatives like EVs by easing the problems of energy storage and range...

...Estimates of these costs don’t have to be perfect to be better than what we use now...

...When personal computers came out, there weren’t too many stores tages of NGVs would then become compelling to where you could buy floppy disks, either...

...As a result, we're back to the oil consumption peak of 1976, with less crude in 1 the ground and little hope for stability in the major oil-rich countries...

...They’d be a godsend in Southern California, where some 20 percent of gasoline is burned in cars stuck in traffic, getting zero miles per gallon...

...That’s why the British have used electric delivery vans for years, and why electric trucks are hauling trash in, of all places, Saudi Arabia...

...Unfortunately, only 30,000 of them are in the U.S.-about one car in 6,000...

...In a typical family car, money saved on fuel could take eight years to pay for the retrofit...

...There 1 was, wind in my hair, tiger in my tank, driving a standard full-size Chrysler and enjoying as smooth a ride as Lee Iacocca ever promised...

...Probably because their range stinks: I recently drove an electric “G-Van” owned by Southern California Edison-a smooth and quiet ride, but the van could go only 60 miles before it needed to recharge for several hours...

...Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) not only contribute a lot less to local smog than do gasoline or diesel vehicles, they also emit 25 percent less carbon dioxide, which means less risk of global warming...

...But several technologies now in development will improve the picture for NGVs...

...Put inexpensive overnight-fill compressors at their central parking lots...

...The cost advancommuters, especially if air regulations cracked down on traditional fuels at the same time...

...These vehicles consume some 20 percent of road transportation energy, because they log double the annual mileage of the average family car (which means that retrofits will pay off twice as quickly...

...Of the contenders to replace oil, compressed natural gas and electricity are the most immediately promising...

...Support Efficiency and Renewables Research: Department of Energy efficiency programs of the early eighties are yielding thousands of dollars in direct energy savings for each research dollar spent...

...And gas station owners would install CNG compressors if there were enough demand to make that investment profitable...

...But if you apply a little common sense and consider the statistics, this problem starts to shrink...

...Buyers would be attracted to its low operating costs-if they could readily refuel it...

...But no one will make the first move...

...When the motor is not needed to push the car (at a stoplight, for instance), it simply shuts off like a light...

...After all, the smog-producing components of my exhaust had suddenly dropped 80 percent...

...Australia and Italy have 50 times as many NGVs per capita...

...the other two are in Colorado...

...And because 85 percent of all rentals are dropped off where they were picked up, many rental sites could be easily converted to centralized compressed gas fueling...

...To better inform more conscientious consumers, the label might add, “It will do X, Y, and Z to the environment...

...We can then let them figure out how to do it...

...some 750,000 NGVs are already on the road, and doing quite nicely...

...By step four, there’d be enough demand to support some private filling stations in big cities, and automakers would be producing engines to take advantage of CNG’s greater efficiency...

...Off-hours fueling makes better use of gas pipelines, too, by leveling out demand...

...Both are available now, without pie-in- , the-sky technological advances...