IER VISION FOR TRANSPORTATION:
To promote the use of renewable "natural gas". Renewable natural gas is natural gas made from bacterial digestion of wastes in the absence of oxygen. The process is called anaerobic digestion, and takes 30 days or less. This anaerobic digestion produces methane (the main component of natural gas) made from municipal, industrial and farm wastes. We see an ever increasing proportion of this renewable natural gas mixed in with fossil natural gas, to be used for all energy needs (transportation, electricity generation, home heating and other societal needs), but it would be especially useful to get us off of foreign oil needed for transportation, while resulting in very low well-to-wheel CO2 emissions. Of course, burning methane in an internal combustion engine also results in much lower NOx, CO, particulates and NMOG's.
IER TRANSPORTATION GOAL:
IER’s goal is to get States and cities to work together with natural gas/oil companies and auto manufacturers to begin producing renewable bio natural gas and labeling mixtures of fossil natural gas and renewable natural gas as “bio-natural gas” (BN2, BN5, etc.), to be used in bi-fuel or dedicated bio-natural gas vehicles.
IER’s TRANSPORTATION AGENDA:
Begin educating government entities, politicians, municipalities, farms and industry about the value of creating renewable natural gas via anaerobic digestion of their wastes.
Educate the natural gas/oil industry about the value of labeling mixtures of renewable natural gas and fossil natural gas as “bio-natural gas”, BN2, BN5, BN10, BN20, etc. This informs the public and governing bodies that natural gas can be a renewable fuel, and that energy companies are preparing a real transition away from fossil fuels.
To encourage federal, state and local tax incentives to promote the manufacture of renewable natural gas and its mixture by natural gas distribution companies into fossil natural gas at fueling stations.
To encourage auto manufacturers to produce light as well as heavy duty vehicles that can use bio-natural gas. We feel that in the first decade of this transition non-fleet vehicles should have dual-fuel capability to eliminate ‘range anxiety’.
After maximizing the production of renewable natural gas from anaerobic digestion of societal wastes, integrate this gas production with the production of renewable natural gas from algae, the fastest growing vegetable on earth, so we can increase the proportion of renewable natural gas in bio-natural gas.
With the increased production of bio-natural gas, begin to use it for electricity generation and home heating/cooking.
ABOUT IER:
IER is a not-for-profit group of specialists, who are either retired or are on leave of absence, who seek to educate the public about energy solutions in a non-biased manner, using their expertise, wisdom of age, and benefit of detachment from financial concerns.
IER 5 PRONGS
1. Present the urgency of reducing oil use, both economically and environmentally.
2. Collect and anaerobically generate methane on farms, and put into gas pipelines.
3. Get Municipalities to anaerobically generate methane, and put into pipelines.
4. Label mixtures of fossil natural gas and renewable natural gas as bio-natural gas "BN", for sale as BN2, BN5, etc.
5. Promote legislation to incentivize bio-natural gas use.
6. Promote ‘demonstration’ projects in key areas.
7. Get automobile companies to manufacture dual fuel cars, CNG and gasoline/E85.