Natural gas is a medium-tern solution to the demise of petrol ... but not the greenhouse problem

How would you like it if, perhaps in the future, your energy company delivered fuel direct to your door? You could refuel in your garage, or at the office. If we can home-deliver everything from groceries to roses – why not fuel? Think of the real estate it would free up via suddenly redundant servos; the time it would save. It’s not as if the service station experience is sentimental … being asked, ad nauseum, if you have a shopper docket, or Fly Buys, or if the notion of two-for-one Kit Kats appeals.

As a sweetener, how about if the home-delivery option meant – kilojoule for kilojoule – you’d get the equivalent of a tankfull of petrol for less than half today’s going petrol price?

The gas that's far cheaper than, and almost as good as, petrol

When Quentin Tarantino shouts ‘Action!’ and three hot chicks in yellow latex jumpsuits hammer their flamethrowers, you’re about to see propane do what it does best – burn. Propane is the pyrotechnic gas du jour for the Hollywood special effects set. It’s the same stuff that makes gas barbecues happen right across Australia, and if a licensed installer jams a big enough tank of it in your car (plus sundry plumbing), it’s a fair old substitute for petrol.

The perfect alternative fuel?

Hydrogen is the most abundant element on Earth, a fundamental building block of nearly everything. Hydrogen fusion is the reaction that ‘drives’ the sun, making sunlight itself hydrogen-powered.

Seventy-five per cent of everything around you is made up of hydrogen, which exists in combination with other elements. Water is two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. By mass it is 11.2 per cent hydrogen and 88.8 per cent oxygen.

Shifting from fossil fuels to hydrogen energy has far-flung implications – in theory. Emissions would be zero. Hydrogen is

Thinking of downsizing automotively to reduce your carbon footprint? Let’s put that in perspective

TOYOTA CAMRY Vs GAS HOT WATER

OPTION 1: Instead of buying a new XR6 Turbo I’ll buy a 2.4-litre four-cylinder Camry.

OPTION 2: I’ll switch my home over from electric hot water to gas.

Analysis: According to the Federal Government’s Green Vehicle Guide data, in 20,000km of motoring the XR6 Turbo will emit