USA
This item first appeared in the October issue of American Gas Magazine, accompanying this item.
Utilities find that using NGVs in their own fleets is a great way to BE green and SAVE green. For example, the service fleet at Citizens Gas & Coke Utility (CGCU) of Indianapolis, IN includes 117 CNG pick-up trucks and vans. Barbara Pesut-Hanley, Industrial Sales Consultant and manager of the NGV marketing program, says the vehicles are a “high-visibility reminder to our customers that we ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to using clean alternative fuels.” Thanks to her NGV marketing efforts, several local government agencies and private businesses use another 125 NGVs in CGCU’s service territory each day, many of which fuel at the utility’s two owned-and-operated public access CNG stations. Pesut-Hanley estimates that CGCU will recoup between $45,000 and $50,000 in federal motor fuels excise tax credits on their 2007 CNG sales. “As a public charitable trust, we’ll apply these funds right back to lowering our customers’ costs of services,” says Pesut-Hanley.
At Texas Gas Service in Austin, TX, Community Relations Manager Teri Green recently took delivery of a brand new 2007 Honda Civic GX for use in her travels around the city to promote the utility’s Conservation Programs, which she manages.
“I absolutely love it,” says Green. “Not only is the GX a great car, natural gas is an environmentally clean fuel. It gives us the opportunity to take the conservation program to the next level.” The city is due to open a brand new public access CNG station at its solid waste facility in late December, says Green. Once this public fueling facility is up and running, Green hopes to create more exposure for Texas Gas Service’s $2000 rebate for dedicated NGVs, which is available to businesses and consumers, and to expand it to include an additional $1000 toward installation of fueling equipment. One commuter promotion concept being discussed with trade ally American Honda is “Make Your Second Car The Cleanest Car On Earth,” appealing to Austin’s environmentally conscious residents. “I think Austin is a ripe market for NGVs and the city would be thrilled to see us promote their use to forward their environmental goals,” says Green.
KeySpan Energy Delivery, Hauppauge, NY, owns and operates a number of public access CNG stations on Long Island. According to Ron Gulmi, Key Accounts Manager and lead on the company’s NGV programs, KeySpan applies some of the federal motor fuels excise tax credits it earns to offset the tax increase so customers don’t have to pay it. The rest is allocated to incentives and rebates for CNG projects. KeySpan customer Long Beach Public Schools, which assumed ownership of its onsite CNG station in March of this year, filed its first federal excise tax credit application in May.
The district plans to use the ‘rebates’ generated by its 20 CNG bus fleet to offset some of the cost of additional CNG buses. Gulmi notes that the vehicle, station and excise tax credits are helping KeySpan add light- and medium-duty vehicles to its own fleet and being used by his customers to build an even better business case for their NGV deployment plans.
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