Last week, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed HB-1258 into law making it easier for prospective locations, such as grocery stores and shopping malls, to install and sell natural gas and electric for vehicles. HB-1258 will enable retail, fleet and community venues to host locations for CNG and electric vehicles to refuel. HB-1258, titled “Concerning Regulation of Public Utilities in Terms of Alternative Fuel Vehicles,” will help build out the alternative fuel vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure in the state by removing regulation from the state Public Utility Commission so CNG, LNG and electricity can be sold to alternative fuel vehicles. In accordance with state statutes, HB-1258 will go into effect as law on August 8, 2012.

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On Friday, the Texas Railroad Commissioners announced that the Commission has about $700,000 available in grants to help public fleets, such as those operated by school districts, cities and counties, purchase new, ultra-low-emission natural gas vehicles. The grant funding, which the Commission originally received to use for propane-fueled vehicles, has now been expanded to NGVs and can be used to offset some or all of the incremental costs of a natural gas fuel system on a new or retrofitted vehicle. Matching funds for the purchase of the vehicles must come from non-federal sources. Public fleets statewide are eligible to apply for these grants regardless of the fleet location¹s air-quality classification.

Chairman Barry Smitherman said, “Natural gas costs about $1.50 per gallon equivalent. That means a pretty quick payback for your initial investment. I suggest that fleet operators use the cost calculator on the Commission¹s website to see if natural gas pencils out for them. The more clean-burning domestic natural gas we use, the less oil we have to import from tyrants like Hugo Chavez.” Commissioner David Porter said, “I think it is excellent that we are expanding our propane grant program to natural gas. When you look at the price of natural gas, anything we can do to encourage consumption is going to have a positive effect not only on the industry but also the entire economy of the state. It¹s a small step by the agency that we can build on to encourage not only the use of propane, but also natural gas as a transportation fuel, and I want to see the agency continue to move in that direction.”

The Vehicle Cost Calculator for the fleet services can be found at: http://www.propane.tx.gov/Vehicles.
More information on these grants can be found at http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/arra/index.php ]]> http://baftechnologies.com/cng/cnggrants/feed/ 1 http://baftechnologies.com/cng/green-grand-prix-baf-rallies-to-2nd-place-finish/ http://baftechnologies.com/cng/green-grand-prix-baf-rallies-to-2nd-place-finish/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:39:55 +0000 Editor http://baftechnologies.com/?p=1009 Barry Carr, Northeast Sales Manager for BAF; A Clean Energy Company and Aimee Clinkhammer, Research Scientist for the Syracuse University Center of Excellence participated in the 5th Annual “Green Grand Prix” at the historic Watkins Glen Race Track. Team BAF, driving a F250 Bi-Fuel pickup operating on natural, finished second overall, which included two laps on the race track; and an 80 mile time/distance rally around Seneca Lake. Over 50 entries, including hybrids, battery electrics, propane, biodiesel, and specialty vehicles competed.

Barry Carr, with his daughter Kelly as his navigator won the inaugural event in a natural gas vehicle in 2007. The event, run by Bob Gillespie of the Green Grand Prix foundation raises funds for local scholarship programs.

In his opening remarks, BAF President John Bacon commented on how the industry has grown from just an idea 20 years ago to the point where natural gas as a transportation fuel is becoming a reality. It has taken BAF 20 years to convert 20,000 vehicles, but in just this year, BAF will convert more than 5,000 vehicles. Just two years ago, BAF had about 50 employees. It’s doubled since then. That’s progress.

We are very excited about our prospects for the next 20 years. By then, people will have long forgotten that somebody had to do what we do for the very first time.

Doug Clark (3d from left), President Metropolitan Utilities District accepts delivery of 20,000th vehicle conversion.

Yesterday on CNBC, reporter Rick Santelli presented a lengthy piece on how easy it is to convert a vehicle to natural gas. You can view the piece here.

While we welcome mainstream reporting on the topic of natural gas conversion, we also feel that it is important to set the record straight on a number of important issues. Unfortunately, the story contains a number of incorrect or exaggerated claims and some misdirected recommendations. So, we want to share the following comments from Richard Kolodziej, President of the Natural Gas Vehicle Association. Rich reviewed the piece and like us, feels it is critical that consumers understand the truth about conversion to natural gas.

1. Customer safety has been and continues to be the industry’s number one priority. Santelli stated that vehicle enthusiasts could convert the vehicles themselves. We all know that, to install this equipment safely and properly, you need to be trained to deal with high-pressure gas systems – including high pressure tanks. If installed incorrectly, the tanks could abrade over time – leading to a tank failure. If you wish to convert your fleet to natural gas, these systems need to be installed someone trained and certified to do so.

2. Santelli bragged about how anyone could buy conversion equipment over the internet. He specifically mentioned the Alibaba site and equipment from China. There is quite a bit of poor (to very poor) quality equipment (and even used equipment sold as new) for sale around the world, and much of this equipment is available on the internet. The U.S. NGV industry is very proud of our safety record. There are national safety standards for equipment (NGV2 for tanks and NGV3 for on-board equipment). In addition, federal law requires that conversion systems being installed must meet EPA emission standards (with a number of states requiring the systems to meet CARB emission standards).

3. A representative of CNG Interstate said his converted Toyota was getting 80 miles per gallon! The only way that this statement could even be remotely true is if that Sequoia is also a hybrid. In any event, this statement is incredibly deceptive. The truth is that a Btu is more or less a Btu. If you’re not getting close to 80 MPG in your vehicle on gasoline, you are not going to get it from a CNG conversion system. By the way, there is no EPA or CARB certified conversion systems for Toyotas, so heaven knows what type of equipment was used.

4. That same representative said that he was buying natural gas at 66 cents per GGE at home. Oklahoma has very low natural gas rates. Maybe the gas actually does cost only 66 cents per GGE. Unfortunately, there clearly are other costs involved, like the cost of the electricity to compress the natural gas and the cost of the home refueler.

We hope that this helps to set the record straight!

We’re really pleased to announce today that we’ve received CARB (California Air Resources Board) Executive Orders (EO) for its CNG-powered 2012 Ford F-Series 250/350 pickups and E-Series 250/350 vans.

The CARB EOs allow the vehicles to be sold and operated in California, the state with the most stringent emissions control rules, effective immediately, as well as in sixteen other states that follow CARB rules. In effect, the CNG-fueled Ford F-Series 250/350 pickups and E-Series 250/350 vans will now be available in all 50 states.

F-Series 250/350 pickups are a popular choice for fleet operators, particularly on the Eastern seaboard. Many of these states have opted to apply CARB standards to natural gas vehicles. BAF is the first CNG converter in the country to achieve CARB certification for its F-Series pickups.

The CNG-powered BAF E-250/350 vans —already in wide use by service providers like AT&T and Super Shuttle — have been CARB-certified since 2007. The new CARB EO extends the certification to include the 2012 model year.

“Our new CARB certifications provide an important opportunity for BAF as we continue to supply CNG vehicles to fleets of all types. No other company in the market has made the investments in quality that we have,” said John Bacon, BAF president.

“We continue to ensure that every aspect of our company is positioned to serve our existing customers as well as the growing market demand for vehicles powered by clean, domestic, cost-efficient CNG fuel,” he added.

In addition to the F-Series 250/350 pickups and E-250/350 vans, BAF has CARB EOs for the 2012 F-450/550/650 utility body, the F-53/59 commercial chassis, the E-450 shuttle, and the Ford Transit Connect. Also for 2012, BAF has EPA certifications for all of these vehicles as well as the bifuel CNG E-250/350 vans and F-250/350 pickups.

“With our broad CARB and EPA-approved line-up of seven product families, BAF has emerged as the leading provider of quality-tested, CNG-powered fleet vehicles in the industry,” Bacon said.

BAF is the first CNG converter recognized as a Ford Qualified Vehicle Modifier (QVM) for gaseous fuel. Further, the company uses Ford-accredited QCM (Quality Calibrations Modifier) calibrations and all vehicles converted by BAF are registered through Ford QFC (Quality Fleet Care) for all warranty and service work through Ford dealerships. Finally, BAF takes the extra step of crash testing its light-duty vehicle products to achieve FMVSS 303 compliance.

Currently priced up to $1.50 or more per gallon lower than diesel or gasoline (depending upon local markets), the use of natural gas fuels reduces greenhouse gas emissions up to 30% in light-duty vehicles. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that 98% of the natural gas consumed in the U.S. is sourced in the U.S. and Canada, making natural gas a secure North American energy choice.

Today, millions of Americans are having fun dreaming. They are filling out forms for the Mega Millions lottery and wondering, “what if?” At the time of this post, the Mega Millions jackpot has hit an estimated $640 million. And sometime after 11PM tonight there will be, in all likelihood, a winner of the largest lottery jackpot in history.

We’ve also been having fun with mega millions at BAF today. It’s hard not to get caught up in it. We tweeted, “It’s hard to get any work done around here with all of the Mega Millions buzz!” And then we received a reply that $640 million will only cover about 11 hours of the foreign oil that the United States purchases each day. Talk about raining on our parade!

But, we also read a very well-timed article today written by Fareed Zakaria titled, “Shale gas, fueling an economic revolution,” and this caused our mood to bounce right back. Zarkaria writes that since November 2010, oil prices have risen 47 percent. Why hasn’t that caused the US economy to tank (no pun intended)? Zakaria suggests that “one reason it hasn’t might well be the rise of shale gas.”

There are so many things going for US natural gas. The US has at least 75 years worth of recoverable natural gas, at current consumption rates. And as Zakaria also points out, “the United States has become the world’s low-cost producer of natural gas.” And, the US can produce natural gas cheaper, and has the best (and lowest cost) liquefying technology. All of that has the ability to change the game on many levels; certainly geo-politically, but also right here in our own back yard. These capabilities might help companies offset the lower cost of labor found in Asia and elsewhere around the globe. Just maybe, companies will consider keeping and perhaps even building new manufacturing operations right here in the US instead of shipping those jobs off to some place overseas, never to return.

So, as you await the results of the Mega Millions drawing tonight, we hope that you will continue to support efforts to shift our consumption of foreign oil to US resources – especially natural gas. As Zakaria concludes, “The rise of shale gas is shaping up to be the biggest shift in energy in generations. And its consequences – economic and political – are profoundly beneficial to the United States.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering . . . if we win the lottery tonight, we’ll still be here on Monday! Good luck everyone!

Our parent company, Clean Energy just signed a partnership with Saddle Creek to provide CNG refueling stations at Saddle Creek facilities nationwide. Here’s the report from Rich Kolodziej from the NGVA.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. has announced that it has signed a 10-year partnership contract with Saddle Creek Corp., a logistics services provider, to establish natural gas fueling stations at existing Saddle Creek locations to accommodate its growing natural-gas-powered truck fleet. A national third-party supply chain logistics company that incorporates transportation, warehousing, contract packaging and fulfillment services, Saddle Creek oversees 29 facilities throughout the country. The first of Saddle Creek’s planned network of natural gas fueling stations opened in December at the company’s headquarters in Lakeland, Florida. Constructed to fuel up to 120 CNG trucks per day, each location is outfitted with four fast-fill pumps and 20 hoses. Other branches under consideration include Saddle Creek sites in Atlanta, Dallas and Charlotte. For more information, contact Clean Energy’s Jim Harger at 562.493.2804

We wanted to share Rich Kolodziej’s (NVGA) comments concerning the vote in the Senate yesterday on the Natural Gas Act. While the act received a majority of votes, it failed to receive the necessary 60 votes required to pass. Despite failing to pass, there was a strong bipartisan majority, which hopefully bodes well for the future. Here are Rich’s comments and we think they are right on target.

“Today, the U.S. Senate voted 51-47 to add the Senate version of the NAT GAS Act as an amendment to the Transportation Bill (Amendment #1782). The amendment was offered by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Yesterday, Sen. Burr spoke in favor of the NAT GAS Act for 50 minutes on the floor of the Senate. Despite the amendment receiving 51 votes in support, 60 votes were required for it to pass, so the amendment failed. Among the yeas votes were 45 Democrats and 6 Republicans. Among the nays votes were 39 Republicans, 7 Democrats and 1 independent. Two Senators were not present, one of which was Sen. Orrin Hatch, a supporter of NGVs (who was in Utah for a primary on Thursday).

Despite this setback, the vote is an important one for our industry. There was strong opposition from the chemical industry and conservative groups (especially those backed by the Koch Brothers). In addition, many primaries have not yet been held, and some Senators may not have wanted to be on record as supporting a spending bill at this time (even though there was an industry pay-for in the legislation). As petroleum prices continue to rise and with the primaries over, we may see another opportunity later this year to pass the NAT GAS Act.

We thank all of you for your quick response to the “Call to Action.” You made a real difference.”