From the article :
“If we want the most “green” solution for mass-produced energy in personal transportation, the answer is natural gas, not electric vehicles.”
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Question : How “safe” are natural gas powered vehicles compared to gasoline powered ones if (God forbid) they were to meet an accident?
Ask Honda, for starters. They make a CNG powered CIVIC that YOU can buy TODAY.
Then there are all the taxi cab companies that have converted, and many utility company and some state government vehicles.
In California, the big utlity company, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) runs the vast majority of their vehicles with CNG.
In San Jose, the local bus company runs most of their vehicles on CNG, or are hybrid.
Then there is this:
Physical Properties: Yes, natural gas itself is a safer fuel than either gasoline or diesel fuel. It has a limited range of flammability, meaning it requires the correct mixture of air and fuel to burn—somewhere in the 5 to 15 percent range, and an ignition temperature of approximately 1100 degrees F. Compare that to gasoline and diesel fuel which both have lower concentrations of flammability and lower temperatures of ignition.
Fuel Density: Natural gas is lighter than air. If a leak were to develop, the gas would rise and disperse through the atmosphere giving little chance for ignition. Compare that to gasoline and diesel fuel, both of which are dense liquids that tend to pool and are easily ignitable.
The on-board tanks are made of steel up to one half-inch thick and often wrapped in protective reinforced fiberglass sheathing. Plus, newer tanks are constructed of polymers and composites that are stronger than steel.
Contrast this with standard gasoline and diesel tanks in regular vehicles. These tanks are usually made from stamped steel shell halves, just a few thirty-seconds of an inch thick, that are welded or crimped together. In the event of a traffic accident, the ability of rugged, durable CNG tanks to withstand rupture or puncture certainly exceeds that of simple stamped steel.
How about that?