Washington Post car chat on June 3, 2011

Washington Post carchat

I joined Warren Brown, Washington Post journalist since 1982, on his chat line Friday, June 3, 2011.

This is how it started:

Hey Warren

Thanks for having me on again this week.

My question is, as a consumer, are you willing to use natural gas as a fuel for your vehicle?

Two weeks ago I was at The 2011 Michelin Challenge Bibendum held in Berlin, Germany. Last week I traveled onto Leipzig, Germany where the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) held the International Transportation Forum. The big news for the OECD was that China will join the OECD this year. That brings the number to 52 countries inside the OECD.

I interviewed Peter Voser, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell. For the past one hundred years, oil companies have put a steel straw in the sand and brought oil to the United States. Only once during the last one hundred years was there a problem with the supply of gasoline. I asked Voser what energy could replace gasoline for the next one hundred years. He said natural gas.

Natural gas, synthetic natural gas, liquid natural gas, unconventional gas such as shale gas. Put together, natural gas is looking pretty good. I, of course, like the natural gas from renewables, such as the e-gas Audi is working on.

I also talked with Larry Burns. Larry Burns is a Professor at the University of Michigan. Before that Burns was the head of research and development for General Motors. I’ve always said that one of the biggest reasons it was important to keep General Motors from going under was the intellectual property they possessed. Anyways, Burns agreed with Voser.

My question is, as a consumer, are you willing to use natural gas as a fuel for your vehicle? You would have options: you could fuel up at a station or have a home fueling device in your garage. Many of you use natural gas already.

Is there a psychological barrier to using natural gas that you don’t have with plugging into electricity in your home?

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

Click on Warrens picture to go to the washingtonpost.com chat:

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Lou Ann Hammond

Lou Ann Hammond is the CEO of Carlist and Driving the Nation. She is the co-host of Real Wheels Washington Post carchat every Friday morning and is the Automotive, energy correspondent for The John Batchelor Show and a Contributor to Automotive Electronics magazine headquartered in Korea. Hammond is a founding member of the Women's World Car of the Year #WWCOTY, and board member of the Women in Automotive.