The clean highway: 2012 implemented (yellow), 2013 planned (orange)
Clean Energy Fuels Corp., provider of natural gas fuel for transportation in North America, has declared the chicken/egg conundrum off the table as America’s Natural Gas Highway® continues to roll out. Clean Energy has celebrated this with the release of its third edition of “The Road to Natural Gas”, an update of its growing portfolio of customers making the switch to natural gas as a transportation fuel or expansion of their current fleets.
This edition includes new agreements signed with additional fueling partners as potential locations for new Clean Energy stations along the expanding highway.
“This year is already shaping up to surpass 2012 in the drive towards natural gas,” said Andrew J. Littlefair, Clean Energy’s CEO and president. “After taking the ‘chicken versus egg’ issue off the table as we completed the first 70 stations of America’s Natural Gas Highway, and with gasoline and diesel prices at near historic high levels, we are seeing significant interest and movement by the long-haul trucking industry to make the switch to natural gas. I’m also pleased by Clean Energy’s growth in our core businesses of refuse, transit and airports with a total of 127 new station projects completed in 2012, an 87% increase in overall station construction over 2011.”
The third edition of “The Road to Natural Gas” contains a listing of natural gas fuel agreements signed or executed since the second edition was released on November 1, 2012.
Herewith an extract from the report, listing some of the Transit developments over the last three months:
- The City of Torrance, CA signed an agreement with Clean Energy to construct, own and operate a private CNG fueling facility for up to 70 buses and over 20 trash trucks.
- Clean Energy signed a contract with Veolia Transportation and another with MV Transportation, to construct, own and operate private CNG stations expected to fuel 150 Los Angeles Department of Transportation buses.
- The City of Tempe, AZ will replace 40 gasoline buses with CNG units that will fuel at a Clean Energy station.
- Long Beach, CA Transit completed its first phase to transition over 60 electric hybrid buses to CNG as part of a master agreement with Clean Energy to oversee maintenance of the its CNG fueling station.
- Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is now taking delivery of five new CNG transit buses every week until the agency reaches its 452-bus order. DART will fuel its total CNG fleet, which includes 200 para-transit vehicles, at four CNG stations built by Clean Energy.
With the current national average price of $4.14 a gallon for diesel and $3.74 for gasoline (02/18/13), both fuels are significantly more expensive than natural gas at the pump, up to $1.50 depending on local market conditions. The use of natural gas fuel not only reduces operating costs for vehicles, it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions up to 30% in light-duty vehicles and 23% in medium to heavy-duty vehicles. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that 98% of the natural gas consumed in the U.S. is sourced in the U.S. and Canada, making natural gas a secure North American energy choice.
(Source: Clean Energy)
