Weaning America off its imported oil addiction is generally considered to be high on the list of national energy goals. No one doubts the importance of pursuing this goal but there is substantial disagreement about how it can realistically be achieved.

One of the more popular ideas is to develop renewable energy technologies to substitute for oil. Solar, wind, biomass etc. are all admirable technologies but are generally more expensive to implement than traditional fossil fuels. The day for significant use of renewable energy will no doubt arrive eventually but it will take years of time and copious amounts of money.

Currently 60% of the oil we use in the United States is imported, most from countries that are unfriendly to the US. Transportation consumes 70% of the oil we use in America. Therefore the quickest way to reduce overall oil consumption is to find substitutes for the enormous amounts of imported oil that are dedicated to transportation.

The most immediate way to cut our oil dependence is to substitute the use of natural gas for vehicle fuel for petroleum. With the new technology of producing domestic natural gas from shale deposits, America now finds itself with greater stores of natural gas than Saudi Arabia has of oil. Natural gas as a vehicle fuel is plentiful, burns cleaner and is approximately one half the price of gasoline – so why are there not more Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV’s)?

The primary impediment to the use of NGV’s is the absence of a refueling infrastructure and the cost of converting vehicles to burn natural gas. Both of these issues will be overcome with time, but the benefits of NGV’s can be achieved much more quickly with strategic economic incentives. There is currently pending in Congress a bill that will accomplish just that. It is S. 1863 and is entitled the NAT GAS ACT. This bill will facilitate the establishment of a CNG refueling infrastructure and will be financed with a special surcharge added to natural gas when used as a vehicle fuel. This bill will NOT ADD A PENNY to the deficit.

NGV advocates—including energy expert T. Boone Pickens—are hopeful that this bill will be passed by the Senate and, ultimately, become law, therefore accelerating the demand for NGVs throughout the United States.

“This is a great opportunity to end four decades of unfulfilled promises by our elected leaders to end America’s dependence on foreign oil,” Pickens said in a statement applauding the sponsoring group’s bipartisan efforts.

“America’s energy future is the key to our economic viability and creating jobs now. These should not be partisan issues, which is why I expect this Senate Bill will experience such broad support from both sides of the aisle.

“Nothing in America has such a thoroughly transformative economic potential as domestic natural gas. Simply by increasing the use of domestic natural gas in vehicles, we can get on our own resources, immediately create 400,000 good jobs, redirect billions of dollars of foreign oil money back into the hands of American businesses, and cut our dependence on OPEC by half.”

EnergyBidder encourages everyone to support S. 1863.

Welcome to the EnergyBidder Blog. We’ll be commenting on all sorts of topics relating to the deregulated natural gas and electricity markets around the country. Please feel free to comment on any of the topics presented. Deregulation of the energy markets has elicited mixed reviews but one thing is for sure – deals can be had for savvy shoppers that know how to compare offers. For some helpful basic information about the deregulated energy markets let me suggest you go to our website at www.energybidder.com and click on the “Energy Markets” tab.

EnergyBidder will eventually be covering all the major state gas and electric markets but we’re beginning with the natural gas market in Georgia. The Georgia gas market is perhaps the most vibrant and competitive gas market in the Country. The Georgia model is unique in that the gas utility, Atlanta Gas Light, is totally out of the merchant function. AGL now only provides the gas transportation function and multiple marketers are actively soliciting business. Georgia natural gas marketing efforts are at a fever pitch right now since we’re in the “light up season” when everyone is thinking about saving money on winter heating bills.

How does a consumer make a decision about selection of a gas provider? Well, they can go to each of the websites for the ten marketers currently qualified to provide gas service in Georgia. Or they can go to the Georgia Public Service Commission website which lists prices for the different marketers. Doing either of these is time consuming and requires some basic knowledge of the market to make sense of the offers. Even if you do all this you will still probably not get the lowest price for natural gas in Georgia because Georgia gas companies DO NOT POST THEIR LOWEST PRICES ON THEIR WEBSITE OR THE PSC WEBSITE!!! The lowest prices are obtained by consumers that SHOP for the best energy deal. Shopping requires quite a bit of knowledge and time. This fact is the force which drives EnergyBidder. Consumers looking for the best gas deal in Georgia have only to go to www.energybidder.com to find the best offer from a Georgia gas company.

How large can the savings be by using the EnergyBidder service? Residential consumers typically save 10% – 15%. Commercial businesses can often save much more. EnergyBidder has achieved savings in excess of 40% for a number of businesses which had previously been been paying their marketers’ “standard” rate.

In the future we will be sharing more information about the deregulated energy markets and how you can use them to reduce your energy costs. In the meantime we hope you use www.energybidder.com as one of your primary resources for energy information.