Natural Gas: The cost-saving transportation fuel

According to America’s New Gas Alliance (ANGA), compressed natural gas (CNG) is on the rise as an alternative transportation fuel. With natural gas commodity prices remaining low, CNG is proving to be an increasingly popular alternative to more expensive gasoline and diesel.

ANGA writer Sam Harper points outs that a number of corporations and municipalities are increasing their investment in this clean fuel option. Last week EQT Corporation opened a public CNG fueling station in Pittsburgh, allowing local residents to fill up their natural gas vehicles (NGVs) for $1.85 gallon equivalent. Giant Eagle also recently opened a station in Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania is a natural location for the CNG push. With an abundant supply of natural gas, strong pressure from the EPA for the state to improve its air quality, and CNG competitively priced, it seems like a win-win-win solution.

But it is not just Pennsylvania that is making a move. New Jersey Transit has signed a $45.6 million contract for 76 CNG-power buses (scheduled to begin operating in 2012). The Austin Bergstrom International Airport in Texas plans to open its first CNG fueling station. Michigan Consolidated Gas has opened a four-pump station at one of its warehouses in Melvindale to support its more than 170-van fleet.

On a larger scale, Waste Management has a fleet of 1,000 trucks powered by CNG and liquefied natural gas (LNG). UPS has one of the largest private fleets of CNG-powered vehicles in the country, with more than 1,000 package-delivery vehicles. With more than 2,000 NGVs already in operation, AT&T has committed to transitioning its fleet to include an estimated 8,000 NGVs.

For a few years now T. Boone Pickens (Pickens Plan) has been pushing the use of natural gas as a cleaner, lower cost transportation fuel. He is also championing federal legislation to provide tax breaks for transportation companies using natural gas-powered trucks and owners of natural gas fueling stations.

For good measure, Pickens himself is a director and major shareholder of Clean Energy Fuels, which owns and/or supplies more than 200 natural gas fueling stations across the US and Canada.

Pickens is an old fundraiser for the Republican Party, and despite the prospect of future federal subsidies for CNG and LNG being undercut by current Republican money men (Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries are against federal subsidies of all kinds), CNG may still come out a winner. As long as CNG remains a lot cheaper than gasoline and diesel.

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Photo by Darin McClure used under a Creative Commons license.