Posted on 08/29/2008 4:20:18 AM PDT by shove_it
T. Boone Pickens is up in arms over NBC's decision not to run one of his new TV ads promoting the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel, and an alternative to importing expensive foreign oil. In an e-mail to supporters Mr. Pickens is quoted as saying, "NBC is refusing to run one of our strongest ads, and I need your help in showing NBC they can't control what we can or cannot say."
The new 15-second TV spot, entitled "Iran is Changing Its Cars to Run on Natural Gas," calls attention to this development by this OPEC member country. In the ad Mr. Pickens is pictured saying, "Get this one. Iran is changing its cars to run on natural gas and we're not doing a thing here." His website says NBC wants him to "prove" the words, "we're not doing a thing here." The website states that all other TV networks have accepted the ad for airing.
Perhaps this confrontation between this Texas billionaire entrepreneur and TV network is much ado about nothing. Or maybe it's more than that. It is difficult to imagine this was simply a decision by some mid-level TV executive, and it was not approved by the head office of NBC. It also comes at a time when General Electric (GE), which owns NBC, and CEO Jeff Immelt are under fire from shareholders for the giant company's lackluster financial performance. A public fight between a popular advertiser and NBC is the last thing he needs.
It will be interesting to see if NBC relents and runs the ad in question. Many Pickens Plan site bloggers are incensed by this snub, which some attribute to NBC's political bias or a conflict of interest by GE, which manufactures components for nuclear reactors and natural gas turbines for public utilities. However, since Mr. Pickens has ordered $2 billion of equipment from GE to operate his proposed wind farms, it is likely NBC's parent company will step in to diffuse this slight to one of their major customers before it escalates any further.
I think I read somewhere that NBC has agreed to run his commercial.
In the meantime, I'm getting notices from my gas company (Pennsylvania Power & Light) that my rates are going up 30% this winter because of a supply shortage.
Friggin' moron!
And he is lining the pocket of Pelosi who has her fingers in this scheme to steal our money so she won’t drill for our own oil.
Oh yeah, peachie.
Actually it’s Nancy (”I will drill your brains”) Pelosi.
Postal workers in Modesto CA used cars running on methane back in the ‘80s. I don’t know the details — just heard about it while living there. If it’s fairly safe compared with a gasoline run car, perhaps the expermiments could expand. [Shrug.]
Iran is converting cars to natural gas because they can hardly refine any of the oil they pump themselves. It must be shipped elsewhere to be turned into gasoline. So Iran ends up importing more gasoline (as a percentage of use) than we do oil. Their government hugely subsidizes gasoline purchases by the populace, so this is actually costing them a lot of money they’d like to be keeping. So instead, they’ll try to use natural gas, which they also have a lot of and their own industries can produce without outside help.
Natural gas is not a very convenient fuel for use in automobiles because it is in a very non-dense gas form (of course) and you have to compress the heck out of it in order to store enough for the car to use, but its probably the third best practical fuel for such use (sugar-cane ethanol being the second most practical).
BTW, Mexico has a similar refining problem and imports a hell of a lot of its gasoline from us (after shipping us their oil).
Anyway, Pickens’ use of Iran as an example for natural gas as a transportation fuel is disingenuous. If Iran could refine their own oil, they would never bother with natural gas.
>>Actually it’s Nancy (”I will drill your brains”) Pelosi.<<
Yeah, that one! Grrrr.
Gas prices just went up 20 cents to 3.79 cash. Just in time for the Holiday weekend.
I've already made plans to close off my second bedroom (which is used for storage anyway) and will keep my thermostat even LOWER than last winter. Need to buy several sets of sweat pants and shirts for wearing around the house.
Thank God I live in an attached townhouse which does save a bit on the h/c bill.
The Iranian government also claimed to have a cure for AIDS. Bluster, bluster, bluster. Pickens obviously has never witnessed Tehran traffic... good luck with even trying to “convert” one-umpteenth of that cars (considering how effective Middle Eastern cleptocracies work).
Repeat
I wish ALL networks (especially FOX) would refuse to air T-Bone’s self-aggrandizing windmill commercials.
Agreed. The main thrust of Picken's investments in CLNE and WPRT is the conversion of heavy truck and bus diesel motors to cleaner burning, cheaper LNG/CNG.
Yeah, it works very well for busses, which generally fill up in a yard where they can keep a huge tank of CNG or LNG under very high pressures and fill the bus up probably faster than they can fill it with diesel.
With cars, you can do this sort of fill at home, but the problem is the nat gas the comes to your house is under super low pressure. So you have to have this filling system that can really crank the pressure up for you. Honda uses this system called Phill.
http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-gx/refueling.aspx
Takes 16 hours to refill the tank! No advantage over an electric car except for maybe a bit more range (and the fuel and car both are cheaper).
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