Fuels

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead sees the potential for turning his state’s fossil fuels into gasoline as something that could add economic value to the state’s rich natural resources, according to Mead’s chief spokesperson. NGI asked for the governor’s response to the recent report that a legislative committee wants the state to help underwrite a study of the potential for turning natural gas and coal into gasoline (see Daily GPI, June 24).

With its own strategic business interest at stake, Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Inc. attempted to make the case Friday for American business supporting national legislation to help boost the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel. Clean Energy’s founder, T. Boone Pickens, is a big backer of the proposed legislation known as NAT GAS Act (see Daily GPI, April 21).

The New Brunswick Energy Commission (NBEC) has recommended that the province increase its reliance on natural gas as it transitions away from the use of other fossil fuels for heating, electricity and transportation.

Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced last Friday it has a contract with a Dallas-based national truck fleet operator, Dillon Transport, to build, operate and supply fuel to a natural gas fueling station on Dillon’s property in Dallas. It will provide both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) for transportation use.

Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced that a major manufacturer of steel service truck bodies, Knapheide Manufacturing Co., has selected Clean Energy’s BAF Technologies Inc. subsidiary to be its exclusive provider of after-market compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel systems for light-duty Ford trucks. BAF will provide its proprietary CNG fuel systems for use in the Knapheide-configured trucks, primarily F-350 and F-450 models, a Clean Energy spokesperson said. Quincy, IL-based Knapheide calls itself the leading producer of steel service truck bodies in the nation; BAF bills itself as the nation’s leading provider of natural gas transportation fueling systems.

United Parcel Service (UPS) has called on the backing of Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. for its fuel and fueling system. To fuel UPS, the T. Boone Pickens-founded supplier of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transportation relies on a liquefaction facility it operates in the western edge of Southern California’s Mojave Desert near Boron, CA.

While the impacts of shale gas and lower overall natural gas prices could eventually alter the status quo, currently gas storage in the West looks adequate, according to sources at Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), a partner in the region’s newest underground storage facility, Gill Ranch in Northern California (see Daily GPI, Oct. 5, 2010; Sept. 27, 2007).

Three experienced state energy officials were selected by Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Tom Corbett on Tuesday to helm the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and another was tapped as the state’s first Energy Executive.

Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. officials see a transition by the airport industry and allied services away from diesel to natural gas as their transportation fuel of choice. That was reiterated Thursday as the Boone Pickens-bankrolled gas transportation fueling firm announced a deal with The Hertz Corp. at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).