Mr. President, Time to Embrace Nat Gas

This commentary orginally appeared on RealMoney on Feb. 28.

NEW YORK (RealMoney.com) -- President Obama has the best chance of any president before him to secure our economic and strategic military power by eliminating our importation of energy and at the same time making us an exporter of energy.

This would reduce the entire world's energy costs and reduce the power that undemocratic, unfriendly governments have over Western democracies. It would be a win for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Obama has to change from acting like a hapless victim of circumstances and embrace natural gas as a bridge fuel until automakers can produce the mythological hydrogen automobile.

I am talking about converting all surface transportation in the U.S., including trains and tugboats on our rivers, to natural gas, or at least make them able to run on either oil-based fuels and natural gas. The technology to do this is here. In addition, I would convert all building heating systems to propane or natural gas. I would also include off-road vehicles and construction equipment. Our air would be much cleaner and we would not be a net importer of oil or oil products. Instead, we would be exporting. This would drive down the price of gasoline worldwide and help the global economy. It would destroy OPEC finally, or perhaps as a net producer of oil we would join OPEC since Washington is capable of anything.

I do not think Obama will embrace natural gas. The president, when pressed, has given lip service to using our huge natural gas reserves but has not come out for it in any meaningful way. His supporter Warren Buffett will not even embrace it to save a multibillion dollar investment in a natural gas company. It will take long lines at the pump and $10 gasoline or more to get the American people to demand that we use our natural gas.

One point to all the environmentalists who care only about reducing greenhouse gas emissions: What you have been doing is clapping with one hand. Europe and the U.S. have exported jobs and greenhouse gases to the emerging markets for years. The result is that we close relatively clean operations to the emerging markets that have almost no pollution controls.

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