On Cars, Fuels and the Ecology

Fuel prices have been continuously on the rise marking up higher and higher. Since it is a complementary commodity it is important to consider this aspect before buying a vehicle.

In Europe, there are more than eight automakers that manufacture cars being run by natural gas. They are also aggressively pushing the use of vehicles powered by this less expensive and more ecologically friendly vehicles. Starting the year of 2001, Opel, which is actually the German arm of General Motors, have been selling car models that are run by biofuel. Recently, Volkswagen AG has already been unveiled together with the newly launched subcompact version of a B-class Mercedes Benz. Both models also use natural gas a fuel and source of energy for it to run.

Statistically, Europe has the largest number of cars powered by natural gas with an approximate population of 800,000. They account for 12 percent of the total number worldwide. This is actually, five times higher than that of the United States.

The relatively inexpensive gas will do many people a lot of good. In fact this is making a significant dent on the European market of auto consumers considering that oil trade has reached $130 per barrel. However, in the United States the use of cars powered by natural gas is being limited to municipal or commercial fleets including those 360 MBTA motor vehicles. 

Natural Gas and the People

These figures make one wonder though. How come in the United States, which has a large reserve of natural gas, does not push this policy through? Instead the federal government is more bent on supporting pricey biofuels as a way of decreasing our dependence on imported oil.

Aside from that, not only do these vehicles running on natural gas have a cleaner way of burning fuel but produces lesser greenhouse gas as well. If you were to compare its emissions to those cars run by petroleum fuels, you could definitely appreciate how great they will be for the good of our depleting ozone layer.

The question is, why do we continue to thrive on these dangerous cars when there is an existing better option. What are the government officials thinking? Are they not in the least concerned about our environment? What will happen to our children’s future?

These are all questions that need to be answered. Every big leap starts from a single step. Maybe it is time to contemplate on things and no matter how simple they may seem as long as they do us a lot of good.