Why are our Wise, Great and Noble (?) Leaders not pushing the use of CNG in private as well as fleet vehicles?

Yes, we do have LPG being used in Taxis and some private vehicles. But LPG is a Petroleum by-product - so obviously lasts only as long as the oil does.

Natural Gas we have in such vast quantities that we are shipping it at very low prices to Asia in a fleet of the largest LNG Tankers in the World - and even at that rate, there are claims that it will - with the known fields yet untapped - last over 150 years.

Customers overseas are getting huge quantities of Australian Natural Gas so cheaply that they are running power-stations on it. While of course - in Australia we have the more polluting coal-fired power stations.

If we have a petroleum shortage - and we are importing much of our petrol and diesel engine fuel - why are we not using our own Natural Gas?

Engines running CNG are relatively low-polluting, the engine lubricating oil and filters last longer between changes - and in using it we wouldn't be importing fuel from elsewhere.

Existing diesel engines can use Natural Gas in combination with diesel fuel - considerably reducing diesel emissions, or if so designed, can use it directly, with very great reductions in emissions.

Car makers can design Natural Gas engines for private cars, also utes and vans for private as well as commercial use. While these might cost a little more to buy - surely the Governments - Federal and State - could give purchasers of Natural Gas fuelled vehicles similar incentives to those the buyers of electric or hybrid cars are offered in many parts of the World.

While it might take 10 or 20 years to change the great majority of private vehicles to Natural Gas - such planning on the part of our Great - hopefully - Leaders, would ensure that the later generations will have suitable vehicles and the fuel to run them on, far into the future.

Yes - once we get into production with safe Thorium-Cycle reactors - we might then have the vast amounts of cheap electricity to run a national fleet of electric vehicles - with by then, the 1,000km range storage units per vehicle that are needed to be practical in a country with our great distances - but that technology and development level is a generation or more away...

Meanwhile - until then, we have very large supplies of Natural Gas, but at present we just seem to be "getting rid of it" as quickly and cheaply as possible...

Regards, Dave.