CNG Solution To High Gasoline Prices

Tired of high gasoline prices? Can't afford to fill up your SUV? <br/><br/>One Tulsa business owner says he has the answer and he says it's been here all along. <br/><br/>News on 6 business

Tuesday, May 2nd 2006, 10:47 am

By: News On 6

Tired of high gasoline prices? Can't afford to fill up your SUV?

One Tulsa business owner says he has the answer and he says it's been here all along.

News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg says Tulsa Gas Tech owner Tom Sewell hasn't filled his car with gasoline in the past 17 years. "Yeah, CNG is your option."

CNG or Compressed Natural Gas. It's cleaner than gasoline and cheaper than gasoline. In fact, the CNG equivalent of a gallon of gasoline is about 90 cents and it's produced in abundance in Oklahoma. So why hasn't it caught on? Well, it's starting to. "When fuel hit $3 a gallon a year ago, our phone started ringing off the wall and the awareness has come way up compared to 15 years ago."

Part of the problem of course is there aren't a lot of commercial filling stations to gas up with natural gas. Sewell's company makes compressed natural gas pumps mainly for large corporation and government clients who have fleets of vehicles on natural gas. There is one solution though, home filling stations that connect to your natural gas like any other gas appliance. "And I'm fueled every morning when I leave my house, because you just plug in and it slow-fills off my house pipe."

Ironically, Sewell says some of his best government clients are Middle Eastern governments, where believe it or not, they encourage the use of natural gas in vehicles. "What they're trying to do is they want to export their liquid fuel and the natural gas is a little harder to export, so they're using it for the local transportation."

But he says he can't through to his own hometown. "City hall, I haven't been able to penetrate the maze of city hall between me and the people you talk to."

Talk about freedom from Middle East oil. Sewell doesn't even look at gas prices. "When I go to Quik Trip, I'm more worried about how much the soft drinks are."

The home gas pumps are expensive, about $8,000. But tax credits from the state and federal government can reduce the price to about $3,000 and Oklahoma Natural Gas does have some refueling stations that are open to the public.