Natural gas subsidies a boon for T. Boone

Billionaire tycoon T. Boone Pickens Jr. recently has stepped up efforts to press for Congress to pass a sweeping natural gas subsidy package known as the NAT GAS Act of 2011. The Pickens-backed proposal would enact a host of goodies for the industry: subsidies totaling $11,500 per car; $64,000 for commercial natural gas trucks, depending on their size; and up to $100,000 for retailers to install natural gas infrastructure at filling stations. By Mr. Pickens‘ own estimate, the cost to taxpayers to put 140,000 commercial natural gas trucks and the necessary fueling stations into operation would be $5 billion over five years. However, add in the cost of the passenger-vehicle subsidy at an assumed sales rate of 1 million natural gas cars and 100,000 small natural gas trucks each year, and the price tag would be $13.8 billion per year, without counting the bigger subsidies for large trucks and filling stations. Mr. Pickens presents the subsidies as a patriotic alternative to buying oil from the bad guys at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. An oil insider himself, Mr. Pickens is the spokesman who is here to impart sage advice about a subject he knows all too well...more