Tag Archives: compressed natural gas

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: Chicken or the Egg

There’s a natural gas boom under way – and an interesting dilemma comes with it.
The United States produced a record amount of natural gas in 2011 – twenty-three trillion cubic feet — largely because of hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling. Pennsylvania more than quadrupled its natural gas output between 2000 and 2010 to 573 billion cubic feet – enough to heat every home in the state for eighteen months. Shale gas well output grew faster still, quadrupling nationwide between 2007 and 2010.

For the first time in my lifetime, it is possible that our country could become energy independent. American natural gas has the potential to fuel our cars and heat our homes. At less than half the price of imported gasoline, it will be a welcome relief at the pump.

But here is the dilemma. Which comes first, the cars that run on CNG or the gas stations that will carry it? CNG must be piped in rather than trucked, so every CNG pump along the side of the road needs significant infrastructure to get fuel. Oklahoma is leading the way in making the transition. With 90 fueling stations statewide, the state has per capita more than anyone else.

In this week’s video blog, we look at how state government and private industry are working together to take some of the pain out of the pump.
Rob McClendon

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: Losing our Dependence

Energy independence, or at least the lessening of our dependence on foreign oil, is something every presidential administration in my memory has talked about. In that time, the U.S. has fought a couple of wars in the Middle East while watching the price of fuel sky rocket. Still, our use of foreign oil continues to grow.

But thanks to new technology, we may be closer to breaking the grip of foreign oil addiction. Under American soil are vast reserves of clean burning natural gas. In fact, global energy leaders estimate that this country now has twice the energy reserves of Saudi Arabia. The question now is how do we convert our energy needs to this domestic fuel?

In this week’s video blog, we’ll look at work underway in Oklahoma to establish the infrastructure to use natural gas in our cars.
Rob McClendon

 

Oklahoma Horizon TV

On the Horizon: CNG Racer

Give engineering students a workshop to develop innovative vehicles and they are happy. Give them a race track to try out their creations and they are ecstatic. Give them natural gas for fuel and they become world record breakers. Oklahoma State University racing enthusiasts set a record by running their natural gas-fueled formula race car 328 laps in a 24-hour period at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit outside of Stillwater.

See how they did it in this week’s video blog.
Andy Barth