H.R. 1380 Refuels the Pace of Change for CNG Powered Vehicles

Once upon a time, when dinosaurs ruled the earth (circa the 1980’s) the nation reveled in its superiority over the Russians, if not theoretically conquering the recessionary (energy strapped) 1970’s. During such wacky times, the nation if not our policy makers also did a couple of very stupid things.

What’s new, right?

Well, in terms of energy specifically, it’s nice to say that in a time when we seem to be celebrating fifty year centennials of “rolling back” policy initiatives of all kinds, we appear to be on the brink of a supposedly “progressive” if not “green” watershed that would undo a great deal of the damage done to alt energy during the (sorry to tag this in such a way) Reagan era. Conceived of and supported this time, by the way, by a bunch of ostensible “conservative” if not “Texan” Republicans. Among many others. We won’t tell the former that it’s also the fifty year anniversary of the Freedom Rides this May (only kidding) but maybe the ghosts of civil rights past have come back to steer this bill’s passage (this time) uneventfully to the President’s desk for signature.

The 1980’s, you may recall, was a time when the removal of solar panels from the White House was considered the coup-de-grâce or the nail in the coffin for the “treehuggers” if not “progressives” and Lord help us, “environmentalists.” (There were no “sustainability specialists” in those days – they just worked for the EPA). This bill amends the tax code of 1986 to rev up the pace of adoption of CNG powered “alt” if not “green” transportation.

H.R. 1380, introduced last week with north of 70 original co-sponsors (and way, way over the centennial mark now) and referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee, undoes a great deal of that damage.

Specifically the bill focuses on heavy duty and fleet vehicles, some of the worst guzzlers on the planet and also the most efficient users of CNG (which in studies to date has been shown to be the best alt fuel for heavier vehicles).

The act essentially creates incentives at all points of the chain to spread the use and refueling infrastructure for CNG – starting with vehicle manufacture and going to tax credits for property to build the pumps.

It also has some very nice give-backs for everyone who buys a CNG fueled vehicle. The heavier the better. But for our purposes, it’s still nice to know that Uncle Sam has a $7,500 tax credit in store just for vehicle purchase on the low end.

What appears to be an even greater incentive for heavy duty fleet operators however, is that apparently, the tax credit can be applied to “converted vehicles,” thus going an even longer way to off-setting if not essentially covering the cost of a retrofit. We see this business alone creating jobs for days at least in the first decade or so of our energy conversion away from petroleum APY (after peak year).

There are a lot of other goodies involved for everyone gung-ho about this particular market niche right now. We encourage those so curious to research the text of the bill online and we of course will be keeping an eye on its journey through the House and Senate this time. This would be apparently the third time the forces behind this bill, starting with T. Boone Pickens, have tried to get this past Congress. It has been repeatedly bundled in the past with larger omnibus environmental and clean energy bills that went south. Hopefully on its own, this time, it will finally pass into law. With this amount of original (bi-partisan) co-sponsors, potentially the Hill may have a very green spring if not year.

This passage of this bill alone, we anticipate, will do unbelievable wonders to spur the overall economy. Nationally. We think it will also have a huge impact on this area in particular.

We hope to be a long and steady passenger on that wave as much as we hope to be a driver of innovation and change ourselves.

For more information about the bill as it travels through the legislative process, along with some articles that savvy readers may recognize, go to http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h1380/show

Disingenuous “Budget Cuts” For “Medicare”

We, like just about anyone alive with access to media (old, new or somewhere in between) know that the hunt is now on for savings. And as usual, everyone is looking to “Medicare.”

We do feel we need to weigh in on this issue at the moment from what we hope is a strictly non-partisan “green” stance, however it is apparent to us that despite all the rhetoric, as usual, to date, there is more hot air than substance on all sides. We would say gas, but, well, we think savvy readers get the point and we wouldn’t want to get into any confusion about “good” gas and “bad.” We run into that problem enough as it is.

However, the reality is, beyond Beltway Contortions, is that “Medicare” actually refers to all government-sponsored health insurance. While the VA (this time) is apparently being saved from all consideration, in general, VA covered medical care is the same thing as HHS covered “Medicare” – as are “Disability benefits” and of course “Medicaid.” When it comes to healthcare, the benefits are all the same. We won’t confuse the uninitiated with a further discussion of the “dually eligible.” So many monikers, all the same deal.

This means, however, for example, that doctors are compensated under the same rate, and, to get to a point, so are drivers. Even more to the point, according to some interesting figures we have seen, historically, “the disabled” or as we refer to them, “PWDs” have actually been a higher driver of care costs than the “elderly.” (We refer to those folks these days as, um, “Boomers” however much we know they really hate that. No matter how cute Robert Redford looked on the cover of AARP’s national mag not too long ago.)

Snarking aside, that’s an awfully big segment of the population that is being rather systematically ignored. Annually, not just cumulatively.

Oops.

What this also means of course is that the current calculations of “getting rid” of Medicare if not “voucherizing” it essentially means that people who have had “Medicare” all of their lives or after a disabling situation or illness, will be essentially cut off after they reach 62. Sort of like a “Logan’s Run” on the far, far, side of 30.

We won’t even begin to think of weighing in on that score, however we did think it was appropriate to bring up a topic that is directly at our core mission and one which is directly related to that problem we just mentioned. Specifically, added to this very grim situation already is that there is a great deal of transportation now (supposedly) reimbursed by HHS.

We say “supposedly” because that is really what it means. And while we don’t want to get into any Title II discussions (for one) we believe that many areas are actually in danger of (unintentionally) violating Title II of the ADA with “budget” but not civil rights law compliant service cutbacks that affect the (unfortunately still too high) 90% of the 20% of the country with a disability who is also forced, for whatever reason, to also receive government benefits (known broadly as “disability”).

That’s where we hope we can really make our first impact. We also hope that we begin to make enough “noise” on the policy level (and we don’t care where, how, or with whom, as long as we can make our point) that draining the petroleum out of Medicaid (the blanket default medical insurance program we should probably all get used to referring to) is one of the best ways to immediately figure out ways to “cut it” while planning longer term service models (like ours we not so modestly suggest) to actually make the service itself if not the transportation that serves this community, the most efficient, best and cost-effective it can be.

After all, Title II of the ADA was designed as the “no separate but unequal” clause of the statute. In “Title VII” terms (which also apply here we hasten to remind any legislators reading this), this is essentially the “no white drinking fountain” clause of the ADA.

We think this makes the point without, say, sitting in any cafeterias marked “able-bodied only” and most certainly without posting a cartoon somewhere effective with two (non ADA compliant) drinking fountains – one for the “able-bodied” and the other for “gimps.”

The Petroleum Market Watch Equation

It is a truism that understanding the basic elements to any subject is the key to understanding it. We decided to do a brief primer in today’s blog about the math behind our “inevitability calculations” of the increased speed now at which the country will convert to “alt” (whether CNG or not). Since we have done the calculations with CNG however, we will stick with that for today’s blog.

The first standard to set is to rethink your energy calculations in “scientific geek speak.” In that world, a gallon of petroleum equals 124,000 BTUs (or British Thermal Units) of energy.

The cost, in other words of 124,000 petroleum-fueled BTUs is now hovering around, well, let’s just bite the bullet for the sake of a few week’s relativity, $4.00. We know what we are about to tell you is shocking so in the interests of apples-to-apples comparisons, remember that this is “retail” price. The next one is “wholesale” price, which is usually about ½ to 1/3 of what consumers pay at point of purchase. It’s a bit harder (for us at least) to give readers a better benchmark for petroleum but let’s just assume for appreciably equal comparisons, we are actually talking about $1.00 a gallon “wholesale” petroleum costs.

Now, to this end, consider an entry in a recent MarketWatch report that came out a day after the Natural Gas Bill was introduced in the House of Representatives last week (H.R. 1380).

That story, which appeared on April 7, 2011, discussed that the price for natural gas fell $0.07 for supplies to be delivered in May to a number that should sound quite familiar to most motorists these days of $4.07. Of this year we hasten to add. We also must note here that this price decrease for natural gas (amidst a month of a $0.25 cent retail price at the pump at least – increase per (approximately) $1.00+ a-gallon of petroleum or 124K of petroleum BTUs) is for a whopping 1 million BTUs of natural gas powered energy.

To think of it this way, there are approximately 8 “gallons” of petroleum-fueled energy in a million gas powered BTUs. Now, if you compared the approximate price of “BTUs” fueled by different kinds of energy, the price of a BTU fueled by natural gas is approximately half that of petroleum.

And that is where the first real analysis should, we think be made. It is for that reason we hope that our cars at least open the doors to new innovation in the continued alteration of the combustion engine to another “hybrid dot one” version if not a whole other “dot oh” upgrade.

We do want to note with some humor that apparently the market had bet against natural gas, specifically that there was a smaller than expected decline in weekly supplies. We note this merely because we know the market, along with apparently many policymakers, does not understand what the every-person at the pump does.

As the perfect segue to end today’s blog, we were out for our morning dog walk this morning and happened upon a neighbor fixing his car. It turns out he is an employee at one of the largest cab companies in Charlotte. He does not look or sound like he was born in this country, in one of the long, proud, traditions of many immigrants to establish a (legal) foothold on these shores by working as a taxi driver (in many cities across this country). When we told him what we are doing, he looked at us for a minute, translating semi-unfamiliar words.

“Green taxis?” he said. “No gas?” We didn’t have the heart to say, well, sort of, but the point, we think should speak volumes.

He gave us the thumbs up at our affirmative, and may in fact be one of our earliest “poach” hires to the extent that we do much of that (and we don’t intend to do much). However having someone in the neighborhood who can walk to work and is enthusiastic about the core premise of our company in any language is something that is clean, green music to our ears.

Green Tipping Points

There is an inevitability to the direction we are headed, even if for example “we” as Freedom Riders do not succeed in our current venture. The realities if not greenbacks of “real-politik” if not directly in consumer’s (and government’s) wallets are dictating the lockstep of our strategic guidance.

This is no-where more true right now than in the “green” action that is going on in Washington D.C. at the moment, ostensibly even with cutbacks at such agencies as the EPA. In another classic “behind the scenes,” not to mention “I’m not an insider but I play the game” hall and vote jockeying move by Obama, there are some political realities lining up that are decidedly bipartisan and seem to meet everybody’s goals at the moment. This starts with all the careful posturing of the President yesterday about the cuts he has “allowed” in the budget to date along with the “invest in the future” rhetoric. It also happened about a week ago with far less drama on the (mostly) Republican side of the House with the introduction of H.R. 1380, the so-called “Natural Gas Act.” We will examine that piece of nascent legislation in another post no doubt. The White House has already praised the vehicle we plan to use (the MV-1) in a press statement we link to elsewhere on this site. It boggles the mind in the spider-web sensitivity of the White House to the Hill, particularly in this administration, that this legislation didn’t at least make a mention at some White House briefing in the last week. Nor, we surmise, was it entirely unrelated to Obama’s subsequent remarks and actions on the federal budget negotiations.

On the local level, we see these federal developments as a boon (not the one in Watauga County) for North Carolina and even more specifically Charlotte. The region is staggering right now under a very high 11% unemployment rate (the fourth highest of any city in the country), that will prove to be stubborn to combat unless some kind of investment and retraining of a large segment of the population occurs quickly. It will also be inevitably helped by creating opportunities for this cash-strapped (and very petroleum dependent) region to cut their transportation energy costs dramatically. Charlotte is also, for those without the regional knowledge, one of the major North-South transportation hubs for long-haul truckers on the East Coast. This legislation and Charlotte’s early mover advantage in converting to CNG city-wide, could directly (and positively) impact the price of many different commodities (starting with food) on a regional (as in East Coast) basis if not nationally.

If there was ever a “ground zero” for the “green tipping point” to make an (excuse the mixed metaphors) economic “atomic blast” the size of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki domestically with the least amount of other kinds of investment (both public and private), we believe that Charlotte would be it.

We continue to push forwards on all fronts to help make our company one of the ones that is in the forefront of the coming “green” revolution that we hope begins to bloom right along with the azaleas this year.

Pain At The Pump

As MS-NBC reported yesterday, the average price of gasoline has risen to almost $3.75 a gallon nationwide, hitting a new high in San Francisco (of anywhere between $4.25 and $4.50). In North Carolina, the prices are about the national average, but it is obvious to all and sundry that (at least) a $0.25 cent per gallon increase (in a month no less) is not the direction we need to go to keep the fragile economic recovery going.

It’s also something which is going to cause an existential crises at most government agencies, particularly those which have line items for petroleum expenditure that is required under federal civil rights law. We understand the impetus to “suck it up and take the bus,” but the reality is that for many people that just isn’t possible. Starting, by the way, with everyone who lives in a rural community and going all the way to the state’s busiest cities (Charlotte and Raleigh).

We don’t mean to brag, but we think we have the silver bullet to put the ever-lurking zombies and werewolves of rising gas prices firmly back where they belong. We are hard pressed in fact, to figure out how government services (at least) can resist the siren song of instant and easy savings without any additional service model adaptations (although ours is highly efficient in that regard too).

We take a moment here to pause in reflection about how much things have really changed in America over the last decade. Despite all the bad news that seems to still surround us about the economy if not energy independently, the reality is when both are looked at together, we see silver, if not green linings to all those dark, seemingly everpresent clouds.

We encourage visitors to our site to take a look around at some of our “wonkier” offerings, including of course our tabs on “Green Business Math.” We actually hope that what we are doing is going to provide a cheaper alternative in transportation if not efficiencies of scale in other areas of non-negotiable transportation and energy expenditure costs. That goes for both the public and private sectors.

Tune in on a regular basis to find out what our plans might be as we continue to build up to company launch.

As a final note, we were tempted yesterday to update our price of petroleum as we have denoted it on a tab herein, but we then paused and thought perhaps we should just leave it there to establish a benchmark (if not to allow people to realize yet again what sticker shock at the gas pump means for the long term). This is not your parent’s (1970’s) petroleum shortage. This one is here for good. Perhaps it’s a tad gauche and may seem like gloating for us to constantly bring this up but that is not the intent. The real motive here is to finally wean America off it’s petroleum dependence. We think we have a few (but by far from all) of the answers in helping us get there or at least in beginning to take some of the earliest, easiest baby steps.