States Take the Lead on Natural Gas

State governors from across the nation have asked Detroit auto companies to build them natural gas vehicles for their state fleets. Governors are ready, willing and able to buy vehicles that can avoid imported oil from countries with populations hostile to America.

The biggest problem with vehicles fueled by CNG or LNG is a lack of places to fuel them up. Tracy Samilton of NPR says, “Filling up a natural gas car’s fuel tank is a cinch — if you live in the right place. Ann Arbor, Mich., for example, has two natural gas pumps. But that kind of infrastructure is unusual in the vast majority of U.S. cities.”

If twenty states added natural gas powered vehicles (NGVs) to their fleets, the infrastructure for fueling those vehicles would necessarily expand to those states, and allow for citizen refueling of NGVs. This is a better way to introduce natural gas to the country than a federal mandate. Allow states, who already replace their fleets of vehicles on a regular rotation phase in NGVs to foster growth in the infrastructure facilities needed to cater to those vehicles.

Across the country, fuel consumers are considering a switch to natural gas from petroleum products. As reported in The Trucker New Service, “Slightly more than half (51.4 percent) of carriers are considering natural gas (NG) fueled trucks when new trucks are purchased.” The study also reports that the greatest obstacle to wider acceptance of NGVs is a lack of fueling stations. The governors’ effort should help to alleviate that problem if successfully implemented.

Click here to view CNG Now’s national map of natural gas fueling stations. You can find a station near you and the price of fuel there.