I am not sure what is more pathetic. Is it that the USA, the world's number 1 natural gas producer, has a pitiful 1,240 natural gas fueling stations? Or is it that Pennsylvania has just 44 of that ridiculous total?
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/stations_counts.html.
Yesterday, natural gas was being sold for the equivalent of $1.50 to $2.20 per gallon in the few natural gas fueling stations that are open to the public. With natural gas prices like that available, the motoring public is being ripped off every time they fill up with gasoline. For example, I paid last night $3.47 in Pennsylvania for dirtier gasoline.
America and Pennsylvania, the third biggest natural gas producing state, remain hooked to more expensive, dirtier oil. And that is not accidental. Our addiction is maintained by sustained opposition to moving vehicles from oil to alternative transportation fuels by interests like Exxon as well as neglect or incompetence by politicians like Pennsylvania Governor Corbett.
The opposition, neglect, and incompetence means today about 1 in a thousand vehicles in the USA will run on a fuel other than oil. Though natural gas is much cheaper than gasoline, electricity is cheaper still. Indeed, running on electricity costs the equivalent of about $1.14 per gallon. American companies and families are paying 50% to 200% more for every gallon of fuel than they should be, if federal and state governments had acted to build the alternative fueling infrastructure that would free us all from oil's monopoly.
My plan to build electric charging and natural gas fueling stations within 5 miles of every Pennsylvanian by 2023 would save many families up to $2,000 per year. It would deliver the equivalent of a substantial tax cut to companies and families who could use natural gas or electric vehicles to travel anywhere in the Commonwealth.
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