The City of Los Angeles has signed a 10-year deal with Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. for supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fuel a fleet of 340 sanitation trucks.

The city operates the largest LNG-powered sanitation truck fleet in the nation, according to Clean Energy, a company founded and controlled by oilman T. Boone Pickens, who is pushing a national alternative energy agenda focused on wind power for electricity and natural gas for transportation.

The contract calls for 3.5 million gallons of LNG annually, and the city has indicated that fuel volumes are expected to grow during the life of the contract as more of the diesel trucks in the bureau’s 700-truck fleet are replaced with LNG-powered vehicles.

Pickens’ Clean Energy operating unit has supply contracts with six LNG plants in the western United States, and it operates an LNG plant near Houston. Clean Energy plans to have an LNG supply facility in California next year. Then the company will be able to produce 160,000 gallons of LNG daily and store up to 1.5 million gallons.

Sanitation districts throughout Los Angeles County make up a huge market for LNG as a transportation fuel, Clean Energy said. Some 24 independent special districts are partnering on the shift to LNG-fueled trucks. They serve a population of about 5.3 million. The collective service area covers more than 810 square miles and includes 78 separate cities and unincorporated areas in Los Angeles County.

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