May
24

Half Way Point Update

6 Comments

We are now in Day 6 and are over half way done with our 10 day, 2,300 mile trip!

We got in late last night to Norfolk, VA after a big day of driving. We filled up twice along the route from Atlanta to Norfolk, once in Hickory, NC ($2.32/gge) and then again later in Wake Forest, NC ($2.00/gge).

As we were headed to Wake Forest to top off before we made the final stretch to Norfolk, one of our Facebook friends reached out to us and invited us to come by his Subway to have dinner on him. We went by to see Nasir and his family and showed them the Tahoe. Nasir was telling us how common CNG vehicles are in Pakistan and said he couldn’t understand why we aren’t using them more in the US. One difference between the US and Pakistan is the cost to convert – thousands in the US and only a fraction of the cost in Pakistan. We have a couple meetings planned with Embassies while in DC to hear about how other countries have encouraged CNG use in their home countries. Maybe we can learn something from  them… Thanks again, Nasir, for dinner!

This morning we filled up at the Norfolk station ($1.542/gge), but we had to be met by an employee because a key card was needed. Thanks to Virginia Natural Gas for meeting us out at the station this morning.

Next we headed over to Newport News, VA for a meeting with Virginia State Senator, Frank Wagner. Senator Wagner has been a vocal advocate for expanded use of our domestic resources. In addition to some cool scenery, we talked about the national security implications of our dependence on foreign oil and the amount of money that dependence costs the US.

We are now in route to DC. We just finished up a quick detour over to Colonial Williamsburg, here we are, “prisoners to foreign oil”. More to come from the Nation’s capitol!

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6 Comments Posted by Castlen

6 Responses to "Half Way Point Update"

  • Reid Edenfield says:
    May 25, 2010 at 1:30 pm

    You mention in your update it is so much cheaper to convert to natural gas in Pakistan than here, why? Thank you

  • Richard Wallace says:
    May 25, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    Way to go!

    I am a bi-fuel NGV advocate/entrepreneur in DC (Bethesda, MD), and have driven one for 17 years (to Houston and back in 1995!). I heard of your trip from Linda Gardner, Aubrey McClendon’s secretary at Chesapeake, just last Friday.
    If you are socializing while in town, I’d surely like to meet you and shake your hand.
    Absent that, I’d also like to gather your thoughts on the trip, CenterPoint, ANGA, DC reactions to your efforts, etc, at some later time that is convenient.

    Best,

    Richard Wallace
    301 229 2631

  • Dan Frederiksen says:
    May 25, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    you work for an oil and natural gas company and you worked for Enron before and you drive a wasteful SUV on fossil fuel and you pretend it’s green?

    don’t be fooled people. behold I send you out as sheep amidst the wolves, be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
    this is not green. independence from foreign oil maybe, green no.

  • John Schaub says:
    May 26, 2010 at 12:55 am

    I applaud your efforts in bringing attention to natural gas vehicles (NGVs) as a present day solution to eliminating or at least substanially reducing our dependence on foreign oil while simultaneously reducing our carbon footprint. And I encourage you to do a true cross-country trip in a NVG – e.g. from NYC to San Francisco. You can fill up in Monterey, – I have both 3,000 and 3,600 PSI compressors.

    I have three NGVs, drive 180 miles roundtrip each weekday, refuel at home, have never run out of gas, have solo occupancy access to the carpool lanes, and have discounted rates for gas and electic usage for my entire household usage because I have home natural gas compressors.

    Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) may be the answer in the future, but while we wait for the battery technology to improve enough to address the longevity and range issues, using NGVs seems like a no-brainer to me.

  • Castlen says:
    May 26, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    Thanks for all of your comments! Dan – I appreciate your thoughts. The fuel is green in the sense that it has significantly fewer emissions than gasoline and diesel. Here is a breakdown:
    - Reduces carbon monoxide emissions 90%-97%
    - Reduces carbon dioxide emissions 25%
    - Reduces nitrogen oxide emissions 35%-60%
    - Potentially reduces non-methane hydrocarbon emissions 50%-75%
    - Emits fewer toxic and carcinogenic pollutants
    - Emits little or no particulate matter
    - Eliminates evaporative emissions
    (For more visit the DOE alternative fuel site: http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/vehicles/natural_gas_emissions.html)

    In fact, the Honda Civix GX which runs on natural gas has been named the greenest car on the road. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/autos/1001/gallery.greenest_cars/index.html

    CNG isn’t perfect but there are a lot of benefits like the domestic, American aspects of the fuel as you mention. The purpose of this trip is to explore all of that (the good and bad) for my graduate research. Thanks for checking out the site.

  • jimmy says:
    May 26, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    That machine to refuel your car.Can you industrial size the machine to decompres and recompres methane as fast as it comes from the well? I think this idea would aleminate need for long pipelines in remote places.

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