With the talk getting more testy in the political arenas on whether natural gas for transportation needs tax incentives, a leading gas-for-transportation fuel and infrastructure provider, Clean Energy Fuels Corp., announced Monday it signed a 10-year deal with a major fleet operator, Saddle Creek Corp., to build fueling stations to support its expanding natural gas-powered truck fleet.

A nationwide third-party supply chain logistics provider, Saddle Creek has outlined a national network of natural gas fueling facilities as part of its switch to operate its trucks on compressed natural gas (CNG). Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy provides both fuel and builds and operates fueling infrastructure.

Saddle Creek opened the first of its network of fueling stations at its Lakeland, FL, headquarters in December last year, including four fast-fill pumps and 20 time-fill hoses to handle 120 CNG trucks daily.

The announcement comes within days of the U.S. Senate earlier this month shooting down a proposed amendment to the latest transportation bill that would have added national incentives (NAT GAS Act) for natural gas use in transportation (see Daily GPI, March 14). Conservative political forces oppose the federal government “picking winners and losers,” and major industrial sectors, such as chemicals, that are rebounding based on historically low natural gas prices also opposed the measure. Discussion about it goes on in both the House and Senate in the U.S. Capitol.

Proponents, such as oil/gas billionaire Boone Pickens, the founder of Clean Energy, have stressed that providing $3.4-5 billion in tax incentives for long-haul fleet operators would help curb the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.

Saddle Creek Transportation President Mike DelBovo said the new strategic partnership agreement with Pickens’ firm marks a “significant milestone in our efforts to transition our truck fleets to natural gas power.” DelBovo said his firm aims to capture what he called “the benefits of clean, cost-efficient, abundant domestic fuel” for Saddle Creek’s shipping industry customers nationwide.

Clean Energy reiterated that CNG is currently priced at the equivalent of $1.50/gallon of diesel fuel, so the use of gas in transportation “reduces costs significantly” for vehicle and fleet owners, and it lowers greenhouse gas emissions up to 23% in medium and heavy duty vehicles. The company also stressed that natural gas provides a secure North American-based fuel.

Clean Energy’s Chief Marketing Officer James Harger lauded Saddle Creek for being “an environmental leader within the freight community.” Harger said that Saddle Creek has invested in CNG vehicles for its fleets and the fueling stations to supply them, providing “clear evidence of [the company’s] commitment to help the supply chain trucking industry lower fuel costs, curtail harmful emissions and reduce dependence on imported oil.”

In response to rising gasoline prices at the pump, the Obama administration earlier this week outlined plans to push alternative fueled vehicles as a way to ease demand for foreign-based oil. The president’s plan would pump $1 billion into building more fueling infrastructure, among other incentives (see Daily GPI, March 8).

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