Achieving clean air.

• Author: Pickens, T. Boone
• Position: Use of natural gas as an alternative vehicular fuel

In cities and towns across America, state and local government officials, businessmen, and individuals are grappling with ways to clean up the environment.

State officials, already trying to cope with reduced federal funding and make ends meet in tough economic times, are searching for ways to reduce pollution without budget increases. One of the best solutions? Look to transportation.

In some metropolitan areas, up to 70 percent of all pollution is caused by vehicles; cars, trucks, and buses that burn gasoline and diesel fuel and emit reactive hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide into the air. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than half of all Americans live in areas where it can be unhealthy to draw a breath.

Transportation accounts for two-thirds of the oil consumed in the U.S. Our thirst for imported crude oil has increased by 60 percent in the past six years. Today, we rely on foreign oil for nearly 50 percent of all domestic energy requirements.

This staggering addiction is taking a heavy toll on the U.S. economy. We paid more than $55 billion to foreign oil producers in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in 1990, well over half of our $101 billion trade deficit. In 1991, oil imports accounted for two-thirds of our trade deficit.

What can state legislators do about air pollution and oil dependency? Move to displace gasoline and diesel fuel in the transportation sector with clean-burning, safe, American natural gas. State legislators have that power.

There are many alternative fuels competing for a share of the new transportation market resulting from Clean Air Act emissions standards. I want to tell you why natural gas is the superior alternative fuel.

First, natural gas is an abundant American fuel competing against a foreign fuel.

Second, natural gas is the cleanest burning of all fossil fuels, emitting up to 90 percent less reactive hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide than conventional gasoline.

Third, greater use of natural gas will create new jobs and jump start the U.S. economy--and state economies as well--by creating a new industry and building a new transportation infrastructure, as well as reducing the U.S. trade deficit.

Fourth, natural gas won't cause an environmental disaster. During 1990, there were more than 15,000 reported oil spills in the U.S. You can't spill natural gas. Natural gas dissipates into the air when it is accidentally released--which is why it's also the safest vehicle fuel.

Finally, natural...