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« Wind Farms
T. Boone Pickens on “Meet the Press” »

The Tonight Show’s Jay Leno - Take Two

You and Boone are big believers in natural gas. Not only is it clean, cheap, and ours, but it’s better for you car.
My buddy has got a ’38 Packard that he’s been running natural gas for 25 years. He’s never had a problem with it. The benefits of natural gas are cleaner combustion. You don’t need to change your oil only half as much.

How long between pit stops?
You can go 10,000 miles between oil changes, 15,000 miles.

So in addition to being cleaner, there’s less wear and tear on your vehicle.
Easier on the motor. When you start your car, a gallon of gas displaces almost a gallon of water. You see water coming out of people’s tailpipes when they first start up? That’s why. With natural gas you get none of that. There are a few things you need to do if you want to do it properly.

What about convenience?
Honda makes a fantastic car they’ve been running on natural gas for 10 years. In Los Angeles you can actually put the filling station in your home. You can get the car and the filling station and everything with all the government give-back and all the tax breaks for under twenty grand. It’s a brand-new Honda that does everything the regular Honda does except it’s 99.99999 percent pollution free.

If CNG is cleaner and cheaper, why aren’t more of us driving more natural-gas-powered cars? Right now for most Americans natural gas is equal. But because it’s harder to track down and not as convenient to fill up, it makes it a little less than equal. So they’re scared of it. They’re frightened that they’re going to be stranded or something of that nature might happen. That’s your biggest fear. The real trick is to put people in natural gas cars and drive them around. Then they say, “This is natural gas? Well, it feels like my regular car.”

Another problem with most Americans is that we like everyone to know the good work we’re doing anonymously. So when you drive around in a Prius you can make a statement that you’re saving the planet. When you drive around in a regular car that has a little natural gas sticker on the bottom of the bumper, it doesn’t quite have the cachet. You know what I’m saying?

Got it.
If somebody made a natural gas car that looked like it just stepped out of the future – I mean it could have a traditional internal combustion engine and just run on natural gas but look like something from outer space – oh my God, you would be seen as saving the planet.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED, AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 9:34 am by Eric in Pickens Plan.
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CommentsOne Response to “The Tonight Show’s Jay Leno - Take Two”

November 14th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

HoustonPublicTransportation


WE MUST EMBRACE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IF WE ARE TO STAY RICH. The automobile costs us so much money beyond just imported oil. It clogs our roads and ruins transportation. We spend billions sitting in rush hour traffic. We need an effective convenient bus system. Americans think buses are only for the poor. This can change if buses are clean and have very flexible routs. If more people use buses then there can be more of them going more places more often. Philadelphia has done it. All of our major cities need to do it. Think of a private car service that pics you up at the end of your street 24/7. Think of real time GPS locations of the buses on your Iphone. AND THE CATCH... These buses can RUN ON NATURAL GAS. WE NEED TO STOP WASTING TRILLIONS ON AUTOMOBILES BECAUSE WE CAN'T PLAN A PUBLIC SYSTEM THAT WORKS. Public transportation can allow us to relax, read the paper, talk on the phone SAFELY, and SAVE LIVES from less wrecks. NY and Chicago and DC enjoy real public transportation. We need to expand the principles to provide it in less dense areas.

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