Designed and built by Delphi Automotive in upstate New York for Colorado-based IEP Technology, the GFC will efficiently generate 4.5 kW of electricity running on natural gas.
In his speech, Obama announced a new $30 million research grant to boost the number of vehicles running on natural gas.
And I'll grudgingly admit, the percentage of vehicles running on natural gas will almost certainly go up before it goes down.
A study of New York City cabs running on natural gas found that oil changes need not be as frequent because of the clean burn of the fuel, and exhaust-system parts last longer because natural gas is less corrosive than other fuels.
And Long Island Bus, the bus system run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has 330 buses running on natural gas, one of the largest such fleets in the country.
A fifth of America's buses run on natural gas, as do two out of every five new garbage trucks.
The natural gas system could be equipped with pumps that run on natural gas instead of electricity so that the system would survive an extended blackout.
Although Omar has three mammoth gas-powered generators that supply one megawatt of electricity, they run on natural gas, which is rationed by the government.
Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992, signed by the president's father, the government offered tax inducements to buyers of vehicles that ran on natural gas, methanol and other "alternative fuels".
John Simourian, chief executive of Lily Transportation, which uses a nationwide network of trucks to move a range of products, including construction materials and groceries, said that only a small portion of his fleet ran on natural gas but that the company was shifting over.
In addition to continuing to call on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York not to allow hydrofracking anywhere in the state, we must also oppose the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions bill (H.R. 1835 and S. 1408, also known as the NAT GAS Act), which would provide tax incentives for converting vehicles to run on natural gas instead of oil.
