The infrastructure is
    still in its infancy, so refueling is a problem in
   most places, which is why people tend to refuel at home and use their
   CNG vehicle for commuting only.  The dedicated CNG car Honda Civic GX
   "gets approximately 180-200 miles out of a tank".  This would suffice
   for most commuters.  Dedicated CNG vehicles enjoy the natural high
   octane of natural gas; therefore the compression ratio can be raised for
   a greater efficiency engine for better fuel economy.  For long distance,
   there are duel fuel vehicles - Gasoline and CNG.  The down side is the
   extra weight and space required for the CNG tanks.


   I don't pay this much, however, I used 10 cents/ kilowatt hour for my
   calculation.  The amount of electricity used for a daily commute is
   appoximatly 3.2 kilowatt hours which = 32 cents at 10 cents/kilowatt
   hour.  I also used my commute distance and 90 cent/gal equivalent energy
   to gasoline, which is my local cost for
    natural gas.  The local cost for
   gasoline that I used is $3.35/gal.  The one third cost compared to
   gasoline is conservative.  The fact remains that the upfront cost would
   not pay for itself with the savings alone, as I previously stated.  That
   is where your and my tax dollars come in.  Whether you think that is
   objectionable or not, the federal and most state governments seem to
   think that CNG is a good idea to the tune of thousands of $ of subsidies
   for each CNG vehicle placed in service.

   Here is a consumer report on the Honda GX which is a dedicated CNG car.
   No duel fuel - no stopping just anywhere to fill up.

   http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2008/02/honda-civic-gx.html_

   The bottom line is that I think that CNG could be a good
   alternative/interim source of fuel until more advanced alternatives
   become available.  The infrastructure for CNG would convert to hydrogen
   quite easily in my
    estimation.

   Googling CNG cars will give lots of information on the subject.

   Norm DeBoer

   If anyone had trouble getting the Consumer Reports article, the URL had an underline directly after HTML.  Try this.

   http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2008/02/honda-civic-gx.html

   Joel