For the skeptics, it can now be said that a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant can be built in California, although the one that is under construction by Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. is for liquefaction of pipeline gas, is located far from any population center in the middle of the Mojave Desert and the liquid fuel will be used in heavy vehicle transportation.

The plant is located 75 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles and will begin commercial operations the second half of next year. Located in the Boron, CA area with proximity to major natural gas transmission pipelines, the plant estimates its initial capacity of 13-14 MMcf/d equivalent of LNG (160,000 gallons) will require about 16 tanker truckloads being shipped daily. Some of the use will be in the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors where there is a push to move away from diesel-fueled vehicles and, ironically, where an onshore LNG receiving and regasification terminal has been rejected for safety and environmental reasons.

Independent oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is the largest single shareholder in publicly owned Clean Energy, which is an offshoot of an earlier LNG transportation fuel company Pickens founded. The company’s current chairman is Warren Mitchell, who served as president of Southern California Gas Co. when it was merged into Sempra Energy.

Clean Energy’s plant will liquefy pipeline-supplied natural gas for shipment throughout California and the Southwest. The facility is expandable to 240,000 gallons/day, approaching the equivalent of 20 million cf/d. LNG storage capacity at the site will be 1.5 million gallons.

“This plant is a major step in our preparing to fuel potentially thousands of additional buses and trucks with natural gas as a result of increasing commercial demand and the new measures instituted by the California Air Resources Board and the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for cleaner vehicles,” said Clean Energy CEO Andrew Littlefair.

LNG as a transportation fuel is said to be a growth market because of long-term projections on gasoline prices and the significant reductions LNG can bring in current levels of heavy vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.

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