Brace Yourself.

As I was preparing this week’s column, I could not help but notice the headlines in most of the papers including the Daily Oklahoman talking about the budget cuts that seem inevitable. One of the common questions that you hear from people is ‘what will it take to get our budget healed up?’. What seems to be the common cure is for natural gas prices to increase. As I thought through that, it seems that we have a supply issue and we do not seem to be using enough natural gas to drive the price to a level that will heal up our state budget. I find myself wondering why. I have to believe that it is an issue of not enough consumption of that resource. If you look at gasoline vs. diesel, we see especially in the winter, diesel fuel climb above gasoline prices at the pump, many times by 30 to 40 cents per gallon. All the old timers say that is ridiculous because diesel is simply a by-product of the gasoline making process. All the oil boys will tell you that diesel is in the same class as heating oil. One of the dynamics that occurs is that in the winter when they use lots of heating oil up north, the price goes up. I have heard that for several years and bought it hook, line and sinker until I saw diesel higher than gas in the heat of the summer. So, I say baloney.

My contention and I do not know if I am right, is that there is so much demand for diesel. Lots of pickups are diesel now and there is a lot of freight traveling down the highways . I just think that supply outweighs the demand. This would come closer to explaining the spread in price that we see in the summer. The question is ‘how do we do the same thing with natural gas?’. I believe the answer is to fuel more vehicles with ‘CNG’ which is also known as ‘compressed natural gas’. There seems to be a lot of talk as we kind of head that direction. I heard that the Tulsa Public Schools have retro-fitted all their buses to run on CNG and can do so at a much lower cost than diesel fuel or gasoline. T. Boone Pickens has said for several years that CNG is “where it’s at”. Some would argue that we do not have the technology. I will tell ya that in other countries, it is as common as it can be. I made a trip several years ago to Argentina. I can tell you from personal experience that every old farm truck in that whole country has a CNG tank in the back. It is very common and it is certainly not rocket science. Every place I went where there was a gas station, they had a row of gas and diesel pumps, and a row of CNG pumps. So, if someone tells you that it is too high tech, they are wrong. Those countries have embraced that fuel source and their infrastructure is in place so I know it can be done. The next question is ‘why haven’t we done it?’. I think part of the reason is that we haven’t had to. Our oil production has been fairly cheap. We had a spurt for a year or so where gasoline prices climbed up in the four dollar range. It seemed to drive the discussion and get people talking again about CNG and then all of a sudden, as quick as the prices went up, they went back down to less scary levels and we then forgot the pain of those high prices. Now, as fuel prices seem to be climbing again, it seems to renew interest in that discussion.

I guess the answer lies in our society’s tolerance for high gasoline at the pump. I think it may be as simple as ‘when it hurts bad enough, we’ll fix it’. We know we can, and we know we need to. It’s just got to hurt bad enough to force us to do it. I drive a diesel pickup and I start getting a little weak-knee’d and dizzy when I see diesel climbing like it is now. But again, it may be necessary to get us thinking and make us change. So, here we are again. Let’s see what we do about it.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the capitol, please do not hesitate to send an email to donarmes@house.gov or call me at 1-800-522-8502.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

“Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.” ~A.A. Latimer