Black Hills Hosts Successful NGV Workshop (USA)

The success of a natural gas vehicle workshop hosted by Black Hills in Garden City confirms growing interest from municipal and private fleet operators in this proven technology.

Black Hills Energy continues to find receptive audiences as the company provides facts and information supporting clean, abundant, reliable natural gas as the greener alternative to gasoline and diesel for fueling commercial fleets, whether school buses or sanitation trucks – all while cutting fuel costs.

“There are about 120,000 natural gas vehicles on U.S. roads today and more than 14.8 million worldwide,” said Tim Hess, Black Hills Energy’s NGV expert. “From an economic and environmental standpoint, the benefits of natural gas as a vehicle fuel grow more enticing every day.”

Black Hills is promoting the environmental and economic benefits of natural gas as a vehicle fuel to fleet operators as a public service. The natural gas fuel distribution infrastructure already is in place – more than 1.2 million miles of natural gas pipelines owned and operated by local distribution companies blanket the U.S., making supplies readily available for new fueling stations.

In the U.S., about 30 different manufacturers produce 100 models of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles and engines. According to the American Public Transit Association, nearly one-fifth of all transit buses were run on compressed natural gas or liquid natural gas in 2011. Currently, transit buses are the largest users of natural gas for vehicles and almost 40 percent of the trash trucks purchased in 2011 were natural gas powered. These NGVs are being fueled at over 1,000 compressed natural gas fueling stations throughout the United States, and new stations are being built at an increasing rate.

In the United States alone, NGVs offset the use of nearly 360 million gallons of gasoline in 2011. About 90 percent of the natural gas used in the United States is from domestic sources, reducing our reliance on foreign oil when used as a vehicle fuel. And with natural gas prices at a 10 year low and holding steady, the current price of natural gas for a gallon of gasoline equivalent is less than half that of gasoline.

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LNG World News Staff, August 14, 2012