Deseret News | Hatch pushes natural gas incentives

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Hatch pushes natural gas incentives

Sunshine | 4:31 p.m. July 8, 2009

OK, now will you also push the government to allow natural gas well drilling in the Uintah Basin? It is plentiful here, as is oil. And even cars that run on natural gas have to have lubricants. PLEASE! Our economy here in eastern Utah/western Colorado is floundering. 42 leases were sold recently, and 31 of them were suspended or put on hold. Why? Sure makes it hard to attract potential producers to our area.

Jeff J. | 5:02 p.m. July 8, 2009

Natural gas is not any alternative to oil. The environmental damage caused is far too great to warrant its' use and it still pollutes the air about 3/4 as much as burning gasoline. We need to repower our electrical grid with zero emissions soluations and repower our cars from that. Pickens is touting his wind farms so we don't pay attention to his real goal; making billions from the sale of natural gas and using public lands (and public money) to do so. When he destroys our public lands removing the natural gas he costs our state billions of dollars. We will need superfund cleanup sites. dumb...dumb...dumb

To Sunshine | 5:31 p.m. July 8, 2009

The oil companies don't want to drill right now. You are at their mercy as far as production goes.

Find a different base for your economy other than dirty fossil fuels that follow boom/bust cycles, and will eventually run out.

Comments continue below

Bender Rodriguez | 5:32 p.m. July 8, 2009

After reading the title, It might be easier if Orrin were to get in the car and turn on the ignition.

Anonymous | 5:33 p.m. July 8, 2009

Its also easier to get Hydrogen from Natural Gas.

We just need to start working on the infastructre and all other processes involved w/ that.

JC | 5:42 p.m. July 8, 2009

Its good to see you are following the lead of the "Socialized" way of Australia.
Australia has had natural gas in cars for the past 25 yrs with a cost of 2/3 cheaper than running on gasoline.
Now if you follow Australia's lead on Health Care,everyone benefits (Everyone has free Health care regardless of income.
My wife is a recipient of a FREE Hip replacement and myself, Keyhole surgery for Appendectomy (ALL FREE). Cancer treatment (Chemo/Radio/surgery) is FREE. Everyones tax dollars pays for it.
Or as an option move to Australia and receive the benefits! We have nice rainforests and beaches and if you are aligned, lots of LDS churchs. But please note they are not the so called Patriotic types, just good old fshioned family types. (we don't like war)Oil barons need not apply, and we love to share our tax dollars to help the less fortunate.Health for all-FREE

I'd like to see... | 6:16 p.m. July 8, 2009

Hatch "push" a natural gas car. At his age it might just put him out of the senate. YAY!

jesterboomer | 7:53 p.m. July 8, 2009

It makes a lot of sense to use natural gas as a substitute for oil as a clean, available transportation fuel - especially as a way to offset increases in oil demand and reductions in oil supply. It's much less expensive and is not subject to disruption by unstable foreign governments.

There needs to be a serious attempt to build refueling infrastructure and to have available an inexpensive home refueling unit.

In this application Orrin Hatch is on target and DOE should be doing more to develop natural gas instead of dubious 'biofuels' or pie-in-the-sky 'clean coal' (there is an oxymoron).

Re: Jeff J | 2:18 a.m. July 9, 2009

Dude ... you seriously have NO CLUE what you are talking about. Do a lot more research on natural gas. It is a GREAT alternative to burning gasoline and diesel. Also, the current KNOWN reserves in the US are sufficient for the next 50-75 yrs.

Anonymous | 7:41 a.m. July 9, 2009

The Senator is busy this week. What's going on, Orrin?

Re: Jeff J | 7:47 a.m. July 9, 2009

Obviously, you haven't seen the environmental damage done when setting up a windmill farm on public lands and the accompanying ravaging of the land needed to build the transportation lines. Take a cruise up I-84 to Oregon and see how "aesthetic pleasing" a bunch of windmills and power lines are on the once pristine Eastern hillsides of the Wallowa Mountains - quite a sight!! Would much rather have to look long and hard to see a camouflaged oil pumping turn key temporarily in place in the Uintah Basin than a 100+ ft. windmill constantly in my face! Dumb, Dumb, Dumb...

Reserves | 10:03 a.m. July 9, 2009

Just the other year they were saying the Nat Gas reserves estimates were seriously overstated, has that changed again?

Re: JC | 10:56 a.m. July 9, 2009

Your post makes no sense! FREE health care - except everyone's tax dollars pays for it!! What's free about it, when you pay for it through increased taxes? Nothing in life is free!!

To 7:47 | 12:59 p.m. July 9, 2009

I'd rather look at wind turbines than breathe polluted air caused by the combustion of fossil fuels.

Also, dirty fossil fuels cause acid rain which kills forests and puts mercury into the water making fish unfit to eat. It pollutes the soil, too.

So bring on the clean, renewable wind energy.

Anonymous | 4:18 p.m. July 9, 2009

Isn't natural gas a FOSSIL fuel??

Election year?? | 9:55 p.m. July 9, 2009

Hatch moved-- is he really still awake?? He must be coming up for election!!!

Art Brothers | 10:31 a.m. July 10, 2009

Since 1998 the Honda Civic GX has been recognized EVERY YEAR as the cleanest internal combustion vehicle on earth. The exhaust is often cleaner than the air in Salt Lake. Fueling with compressed natural gas (CNG) means you don't ship dollars to the middle east since it is 98% locally produced. Building a CNG delivery system puts us one step closer to 100% clean hydrogen fuel.

I own two of these Hondas. Sometimes it is a pain to find fuel and mechanics (outside of the dealer), but I really like helping the sky stay a little clearer. And I like not supporting terrorists to buy oil.

Unfortuntely, only Honda makes a new CNG car for use in the US. In Europe you can buy Mercedes, Volvo and a number of other vehicles powered by CNG. Senators Hatch and Bennett should work to suspend all DOT and EPA rules for importing vehicles powered principly by CNG (many have small gas limp-home tanks) made by an OEM meeting all German TuV standards. If they are engineered to run on the Autobahn, you can bet they are safe enough to run here.

JIM DE Ranger | 3:40 p.m. July 10, 2009

Recall the sage warnings of the global Oil giant:
The meek will inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights.
Consider Dear Folks, H2O and liquid petro---OIL- are not minerals. I. E see the test on minerals.
However frozen H20, namely ice, can be a mineral.
99 % of carbon "green" so called "house gas" emissions come from natural causes. Don;t get suckered by AL Gorey. How many Filling stations are in Casper, or Wyo, where one can hook up to get compressed natural Gas... Near O.
you want to go Green, get on the Natural Gas fill it up platform. Coal is dirty, there is no such thing as "clear coal". It is down right dirty. Always will be.

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