Inquirer Editorial: Fill it up, but not that gas

Three years ago, billionaire T. Boone Pickens seemed on the verge of doing the impossible: making a longtime oil man like himself popular.

During the 2008 election, Pickens touted in an $80 million national media blitz his plan to use alternative energy sources to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

At the time, the United States was spending about $700 billion to import 70 percent of the oil it consumed. Pickens' plan promised to cut those imports by a third, through the use of wind to fuel power plants and natural gas to power trucks and cars.

Pickens' ideas struck a chord in a nation that watched as terrorism and wars in the oil-rich Middle East drove oil prices to record highs that summer. Making other countries rich at Americans' expense just made no sense. It still doesn't today, with gas prices averaging above $3 per gallon.

"It is not difficult to see the link between sending hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars to unfriendly nations and the continued ability of terrorist organizations to recruit, organize, train, and deploy fanatics who are bent on doing America harm," Pickens wrote this month. "Someone is paying for all that, and I believe that someone is us."

Thus, for reasons of conservation and national security, the country needs to be in the business of developing alternative energy sources and lessening its dependence on foreign oil.

That's why Congress should support the oddly titled New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act (NAT GAS Act, get it?), introduced this spring with broad bipartisan support.

Over five years, the bill would extend and increase targeted tax credits for companies to convert heavy trucks and refueling stops from diesel to domestic natural gas. It would also encourage the domestic production and purchase of natural-gas-fueled vehicles.

It wouldn't be cheap - conversion estimates are $100,000 per refueling station and $64,000 for an 18-wheeler. And, yes, Pickens, who has substantial stakes in the natural-gas industry, would benefit financially. But the country stands to benefit even more, especially if the promised savings of 2.5 million barrels of oil a day are realized.

In an era of trillion-dollar deficits, and at a time when energy independence is so closely tied to national security, that's the kind of savings this nation needs. Congress needs to start thinking about the long haul and get this NAT GAS Act in gear.