If Two-Thirds of Our Cars Went CNG, How Much Would it Cut Pollution?

   What if we all (well, say, two-thirds of us), converted to compressed natural gas (CNG)?  I enjoyed Jeffrey Tanner's Feb. 2 letter to the editor of the Deseret News. "Let's . . . make Utah the first truly CNG state and a model for the rest of the nation," he wrote.

   It is said that natural gas burns 20-45 percent cleaner than gasoline. So, if two-thirds of the vehicles on the road went CNG, each burning 33 percent cleaner, that would reduce auto emissions by 22 percent. I try to remember -- do auto emissions account for 57 percent of our pollution along the Wasatch Front? If so, that means two-thirds of the cars converting to CNG would cut into the total pollution by roughly 12 percent.

   Getting two-thirds of our drivers to switch would be a tall order to reap only a 12 percent reduction. I try to remember how much it costs to convert a car to CNG, and it seems like it was out of my budget. Seventy percent would mean a lot of shops would have to be equipped to make the conversions. And, it would mean a lot of filling stations would have to add CNG as fuel they sold. And, it would mean a lot of natural gas fuel would need to be on the market.

   Still, I enjoyed Tanner's letter.