How many people out there know about natural gas cars? Of those, how many know about the environmental benefits, and the bank account benefits? Everybody might find this interesting.
While the national average price of gasoline is now $3.60, some residents of Utah are happily filling up on compressed natural gas (CNG) at $0.63 per gallon and in California it’s $2.50 per gallon. Utah has the country’s lowest price for CNG, which has understandably caused a surge in demand for vehicles running on a fuel that one man described as “practically free.”
So far, CNG vehicles haven’t made a blip on the radar screen, even though the group Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGVA) estimates there are 150,000 NGVs on U.S. roads today and over 5 million worldwide. A good friend of mine here has the Natural Gas Civc with a 200 mile tank and brags about few dollars he spends filling it up. We pretty much take his car now when we go anywhere and it seems to have the same power as a the gas version.
There are about 1500 CNG refueling stations in the US, which is about the same number of commercial stations offering E85 ethanol blends. Utah has a total of 91 CNG filling stations, 20 of which are open to the public, the rest are for fleet vehicles.
The NGVA also says there are 50 different manufacturers producing 150 models of light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles and engines that run on compressed natural gas. Unfortunately, there’s only one for sale to individuals, Honda’s Civic GX, and it’s only offered in California and New York, so you have to travel if you want to get one. It’s also possible to convert a used vehicle to run on natural gas, and for either used or new vehicles, the tax incentives are substantial. Combining state and federal tax credits in Utah can almost completely offset the approximately $7,000 difference in price between regular and CNG-ready vehicles.
One of the major benefits of using compressed natural gas is a significant reduction in emissions when compared to gasoline. Compressed natural gas is touted as the “cleanest burning” alternative fuel available, it reduces tailpipe emissions of different pollutants by 35-97%. Not quite as dramatic is the reduction in net greenhouse-gas emissions, which is about the same as corn-grain ethanol at about a 20% reduction over gasoline.
There is the question of natural gas supply. According to the NGVA, worldwide supply of natural gas is almost infinite, assuming we can tap into methane hydrate ice formations at the bottom of the arctic oceans. If we can’t figure that out, we can just drill more…HAHAHA. Or we can just look at our landfills as they capture bio-methane from the natural breakdown of plant materials. The NGVA says that waste biomass could supply enough natural gas for about 11 millions natural gas vehicles.
I don't know about you guys, but I am seriously considering converting my car! Anything to help the environment and save a little money in this slow period.
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