It was great to be back in my hometown of Elk City on July 9th to help kick-off the Hutchinson Oil Company’s CNG & Me Power Lunch held at the Civic Center.
There was a good crowd on hand. I was glad to see several friends from Elk City and western Oklahoma including Shawn Wilson, Eddie Moore, Jimmy Albert and his son, Buddy Wood, L. V. Baker, Rand Baker, Anita Archer, David Dyson, Guy Hylton and Jimmy Eslin.
I am so very thankful for my Elk City and western Oklahoma roots. It is the spirit of this region that has led America in the development of natural gas as a major energy resource.
Hutchinson Oil was founded in 1969 and in the same year south of Elk City, The GHK Company led by Robert Hefner III drilled the #1 Green well which was completed at a depth of 24,473 feet. It was then the second deepest well in the world.
Soon thereafter, Elk City became known as the “Natural Gas Capitol of the World”. In fact, I remember as an Elk City High School Key Club member handing out bumper stickers which proclaimed just that.
As part of Elk City and western Oklahoma history, what year do you think you would find an article in the Elk City Daily News entitled “New Company Promotes Investment in CNG Autos” which included the following statements:
“The natural gas industry has a great opportunity to promote economic and environmental stability for our nation. It is imperative that the purchase of CNG vehicles, conversion of vehicles, and the construction of refueling stations for the use of CNG be encouraged within the State of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is strategically located to provide natural gas to the nation and therefore create jobs within the state.”
The date was: March 19, 1993. Over twenty years ago, I made those statements at an Elk City Lions Club meeting and announced the formation of a company, NGV, Inc.
Two decades later, I have to wonder where America would be if we would have adopted and embraced the CNG technology that my company NGV was advocating. Certainly our dependence on foreign oil would have diminished. We’d be more dependent on natural gas, and the abundant supply of natural gas in our own country today would be used. We would also be using a cleaner fuel, so in every way we would be far ahead of where we are today from an energy standpoint, and closer to energy independence that we could have imagined.
CNG Now! Now is the time. Now we can move forward with natural gas.
As Elk City and western Oklahoma launched the natural gas industry beginning in 1969, today this same region can launch the use of CNG. It is great to see Hutchinson Oil be one of the leaders in this effort!
It is vital to Oklahoma’s economy that we have a strong natural gas industry. Furthermore, it is extremely important to this Nation that we have a healthy natural gas industry.
America Needs America’s Energy and America Needs America’s Natural Gas!
Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to learn more, and to join the effort of striving toward “creating together the people’s energy plan”.
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