GM and Chrysler to offer natural gas pickup trucks

Both GM and Chrylser plan to offer compresses natural gas (CNG) pickup trucks to the US market. Chrysler said its CNG-powered Rams can travel 255 miles on the fuel before automatically switching to an eight-gallon gasoline tank for an additional 112 miles. GM’s pickups would go up to 650 miles using both CNG and gasoline.The biggest hurdle to wider use is refueling. Today there are fewer than 400 public CNG fueling stations in the U.S.

The interest in natural-gas vehicles comes as gasoline prices are on the rise again and support for using domestic natural gas to replace oil is gaining support. After years of promoting electric cars, President Obama signaled a change in the administration when he said during his January State of the Union speech the nation needs to explore all alternative energy sources.

Read it at Peak Oil
GM and Chrysler to offer natural gas pickup trucks

Mish points to drop in petro usage and asks why

My experience suggests that if petroleum does not grow at least 0.8% year on year the economy is headed recessionary. Notice the plunge of '08 into the abyss of '09....

Gasoline usage history shows a small rise in '07, then a plunge in '08. Usage level for the next two years was flat, followed by a huge plunge now. I did not expect this plunge because gasoline is a lot less volatile in my historical analysis than the overall distillates, some of which are weather related, such as heating oil.

It raises the question, why have people stopping driving, because that is what is happening.

Read the whole post at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
US Petroleum and Gasoline Usage Plunges Last 5 Weeks Compared to Prior Years

by Michael ("Mish") Shedlock