Clean Fuels for China
It’s no secret that China’s economy is booming, and with it has come a tremendous surge in motor vehicles on that country’s roads. Why is this of interest to us here? Simply, because their air pollution is becoming our air pollution. The Journal of Geophysical Research recently reported that at certain times, a third of the air over the West Coast can be traced to China as prevailing winds bring it across the Pacific. According to National Science Foundation research, that air is often laced with smog, sulfates, carbon particulates, and a whole host of nasty stuff we shouldn’t be breathing. The pollution isn’t all auto-related, but rather a combination of emissions from vehicles, factories, dust, and powerplants. One thing we can count on is that with the fast pace of motor vehicle registrations in China will come a greater percentage of auto emissions over time. China needs clean cars, and it needs them now.
T. Boone Pickens, billionaire oilman and co-founder of Clean Energy Fuels, has his eye on hastening China’s move toward incorporating natural gas vehicles as part of the solution. Pickens and fellow Clean Energy co-founder Andrew Littlefair were recently in China exploring ways to encourage natural gas use by building stations dispensing this clean fuel, as the company has been doing here in the States. We figure…more power to ‘em, and godspeed. Air pollution shouldn’t be joining the already-extensive array of imports on our shores. We have enough of a challenge with our own.
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