What Happened?
The City of El Paso, Texas inked a deal with Mansfield Energy Corp to begin construction on three compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations intended to serve city vehicles. Mansfield will cover all expenses related to the project.
So What?
Fleet conversions to liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas are becoming increasingly popular with municipalities across the country. Concerns about energy security, fuel prices and environmental sustainability are converging to make inexpensive, domestically produced, clean burning natural gas an appealing choice for cities and towns. As Gov1 previously reported, Oklahoma City predicted savings of over $50,000 a year when it built its first CNG station and began converting its city fleet in 2009.
Goals and Process
The CNG project is part of a multi-pronged effort by the city to get its fleet running on cleaner fuel sources and to reduce it’s overall carbon footprint. Converting municipal vehicles to run on alternative fuels is a part of El Paso’s Livable City Sustainability Plan.
The broad goals of that plan include:
- Meeting Kyoto protocol requirements
- Becoming one of the least car dependent city in the United States by promoting smart growth and integrated user-friendly transit systems
- Establishing green building practices as the standard business practice in El Paso by 2012
- Reducing energy consumption by 30 percent by 2014
- Implementing 20 renewable energy projects by 2015
- Transitioning 20 percent of City energy supply and ten percent of community supply to renewable sources by 2020
Making clean energy will become a core business sector in El Paso through the aggressive use of partnerships and incentives
El Paso’s commitment to sustainability is also apparent in Plan El Paso, the comprehensive smart growth plan the city passed earlier this year.
Research
The US Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center contains a comprehensive one-stop shop for city officials interested in exploring CNG fleet conversion. The site’s offerings include:
- Information on vehicle and infrastructure requirements
- A guide to local and national incentives and regulations
- Fleet conversion case studies
- Detailed fuel industry data
- Vehicle cost calculators
- Information about other alternative fuels
Also worth exploring is the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s report “The Business Case for Compressed Natural Gas in Municipal Fleets”. The report describes a Vehicle and Infrastructure Cash-Flow Evaluation (VICE) model developed by the laboratory that is intended to help cities develop profitable CNG fleet conversion programs.