The purpose of this book is to enlighten the public of the tremendous potential of natural gas. America currently has an oversupply of cheap natural gas. And it has huge reserves, enough to take care of this country's energy needs for the rest of this century and more. Only a few other countries have more reserves than are found in the United states. There is a massive drilling campaign underway within the continental U.S. resulting from discovery of new shale oil fields or plays and the development of horizontal drilling techniques and fracturing. This has resulted in the production of more natural gas than the country can currently use. America is in position to be free of dependence on foreign oil, to be free of smog and pollution of air resulting from the exhaust of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles and relief from the high prices of gasoline and diesel at the pump. All the country needs to do is switch to natural gas to power its cars, buses, trucks and trains. But America needs to wake up to the fact of these new-found riches. Switching to natural gas can put millions of people to work, put extra dollars in every motorist's pocket and leave hundreds of billions of dollars in circulation in America instead of being sent overseas. The U.S. is way behind other countries in the number of natural gas vehicles on the road. Sixteen countries have more vehicles powered by natural gas than this country. There are two countries with 20 times as many natural gas vehicles on the road than this country, this despite the U.S. having nearly the most natural gas reserves and the most developed transportation system. Switching to natural gas on a wholesale basis in America is not happening. There are too many people in and out of Congress and too many entities preventing it from happening. This report seeks to answer whether and to what degree there are forces and entities that are maintaining the price of gasoline and diesel at artificially high levels, how fast can conversion to natural gas as a fuel for transportation be accomplished, what are the obstacles that must be overcome, are there people and entities standing in the way and what are the benefits of converting to natural gas as a fuel for transportation.
About the Author: Jerry Fenning and Charles Hoppins are research writers affiliated with Western Research Institute, Inc. (http: //wrii.org). WRI, a non-profit corporation, was founded in 1987 to research and report on issues that are missed or under-reported-on by the press. Mr. Fenning has been working on a private basis for almost a quarter of a century in researching and developing hypotheses regarding peace and war. His initial manuscripts were dated back to 1986 and concentrated on describing the concept of artigraph as it applied to public measurements of changes in the global nuclear stockpile over a 100 year period of time. He continued to expand his explanations and theories of peace and war until it reached its current state of accomplishment. The subject matter was very narrow in scope at the beginning phase of development but the project has evolved into a much more comprehensive sweep of how culture affects peace and war activities. The goal is to provide a significant contribution as to the consequences of how people can live their lives on an individual and collective basis. Much more evidence and discovery remains to be ascertained in order to verify the theories but publication of the document should encourage other researchers to offer their contributions. Although one of Mr. Fenning's life long goals involved research and ultimately publication of matters relating to peace and war, his professional career of about 36 years primarily consisted of work as a rehabilitation counselor who provided vocational services to adults with disabilities in the public sector. He obtained two master's degrees, one in psychology and the other as a California public school counselor (pupil personnel services), which enabled him to occupy this position. He assumed leadership positions in various professional and community organizations throughout the years. These included activities in the National Rehabilitation Association in Southern California, membership in the board of trustees of a local synagogue and participation in social action endeavors. He has more time to devote to his private research since his retirement from full time work as a rehabilitation counselor.