Governors Hickenlooper and Fallin initiated a multi-state NGV procurement in 2012
As a precursor to the official opening of its 2015 conference and exhibition, NGVAmerica held its annual awards ceremony to honor national innovators and early adopters for their outstanding leadership, vision and innovation to advance natural gas as a transportation fuel. Each recipient was awarded a 2015 NGV Achievement Award by NGVAmerica President Matthew Godlewski.
The 2015 North American NGV Conference & Expo is being held Sep. 15–17 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO. The presentation of the awards took place at a luncheon hosted by NGVAmerica where more than 500 natural gas industry leaders gathered from across the U.S. to honor this year’s award winners.
Every year, NGVAmerica members submit nominations recognizing their customers, partners and industry advocates for their contributions to further grow the natural gas vehicle (NGV) industry. Award winners are then selected by NGVAmerica after a thorough review of members’ submissions.
The recipients of the 2015 NGV Achievement Awards:
- NGV Public Policy Champions:
- Governor John Hickenlooper
- Senator Michael F. Bennet
- Senator Wilton Simpson
- Lifetime Achievement Awards
- Joanna D. Underwood
- Douglas B. Horne
- John B. Dimmick
- Other Awards:
- Barry P. Carr — 23 Years of Exemplary NGV Industry Leadership
- Bimbo Bakeries USA — Natural Gas Fleet Program
- City of Grand Junction, CO — RNG – CNG Fleet & Station Program
- Clean Energy Fuels Corp. – Redeem — Innovative RNG Leadership
- Core-Mark International — Exemplary NGV Fleet Program
- Matera Paper Company — Natural Gas Fleet Program
- Neapolitan Express — Innovative NGV Application
- Proctor & Gamble, Inc. — NGV Fleet & Station Program
- Raven Transport, Inc. — LNG Fleet Program
- Rush Enterprises, Inc. — Outstanding NGV Market Development Leadership
“The NGV Achievement Awards provide an important opportunity to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of our industry’s leaders,” said Godlewski. “The vision and hard work of this year’s recipients is helping to grow the NGV industry and allowing others to realize the benefits of using clean-burning, domestic natural gas as a transportation fuel.”
Honorable John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado
Governor John Hickenlooper, a strong advocate for growing the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel in Colorado, has been a leader among fellow Governors in encouraging state fleets to use more NGV’s. He was able to briefly attend the NGVAmerica event where he shared a few words from his years of advocacy.
“Reduced emissions, cheaper fuel, stronger economy, more secure national supply are all solid arguments for adopting natural gas.”
When asked how to convince decision-makers to change from conventional fuels when capital costs for NGVs are significantly higher, Hickenlooper explained the argument of high cost is readily defeated using appropriate time frames for return on investment. “Get out of the one-year budget quagmire, ” he said. “Look over a longer period – look over 5 years, 8 years. It pays for itself.”
